Growing Together
by Cke1st
Summary: Queen Elsa and Prince Anders are finally married, and are adjusting to life with each other. But "happily ever after" doesn't always come easily. Their journey takes them through one of her greatest fears, not to mention a threat to their entire kingdom (and their lives). This is a sequel to "Frozen Together" and "Thawing Together." Rated K-plus; the language is all K.
1. Chapter 1

**Growing Together** Chapter 1

_A/N  
Queen Elsa and Prince Anders are finally married, and are adjusting to life with each other. But "happily ever after" doesn't always come easily. Their journey takes them through one of her greatest fears, not to mention a threat to their entire kingdom (and their lives). This is a sequel to "Frozen Together" and "Thawing Together." Rated K-plus; the language is all K._

**o**

It was the fifth day of the Queen's honeymoon with her chosen Prince, and they were both enjoying it, and each other, immensely.

When they'd arrived on the North Mountain and Elsa had built her second ice palace, Anders had wondered what they could do to keep each other busy for an entire month (aside from the obvious; after all, they were newlyweds). It had taken him less than a day to forget about _that_ worry. Now that he realized that his bride's special ability had no limits, it was just a question of what they wanted to do, not whether they could do it.

She created some blades on the soles of their boots, and they began learning to ice-skate on the ground floor of the palace. She'd had a little bit of practice with Anna, and he'd tried it a few times when he was a boy, but neither of them could be called good at it. But after a few attempts, they were able to stay up longer than they stayed down, and then they were able to have some fun at it. Mostly, they just went around in circles, holding hands. "We need lessons from someone who really knows how to skate," Anders decided. "People will expect us to be good at it, seeing how you're the winter queen and all, and we don't want to let the people down."

"If you can learn to be half as good at skating as you are at dancing, I'm sure we won't disappoint anyone," she nodded.

They went for walks in the snow. He would break a path for her; sometimes she would follow him, and sometimes she would walk across the top of the snow, smiling at him all the way, just because she could do it. The view from near the top of the North Mountain was amazing. One day, he suggested climbing to the very peak, which would have been impossible without climbing gear and plenty of experience. Elsa just gestured and formed an icy spiral staircase that wound up the mountain to the top. It took them half an hour to climb it, but when they got there, they enjoyed a spectacular view from a place where no one had ever gone before. "The royal view," they named it.

They played games in the snow. Anders quickly learned that provoking the Queen of Arendelle into a snowball fight was a very bad move. Not only could she make perfect snowballs appear in her hands just by wanting them to be there; she could make all her shots hit, and make all his shots miss, just by pointing at them as they flew. They played tic-tac-toe in squares ten feet across – she made snow angels and he stomped out circles – and when they finished a game, she would wipe the snow flat with a gesture and create a new game board. She made iceworks for him (they weren't fireworks, but they looked similar), and she tried to never repeat a pattern.

The only problem, to Anders, was the ambient temperature on the mountain and inside the palace. To put it in simple terms, it was _cold_ up there! The ice palace did a fine job of breaking the ever-present wind, but the chill air was still a problem. He was in no danger of freezing; he had plenty of warm clothes, and Elsa was always ready and willing to keep him warm. But the only place she could do that was in the middle of a thick sandwich of blankets and quilts; he had to keep his heavy clothing on everywhere else. Mind you, he wasn't complaining. Keeping each other warm was definitely their favorite activity. As for Elsa, the cold never bothered her anyway. It just cramped their style, because he had to dress for a winter storm the moment he got out of bed.

"It's too bad we can't think of a way for you to ignore the cold, like I do," she said over breakfast. Their food wasn't hot, but Norwegians don't mind cold food, and the look in her eyes was more than warm enough for him.

"What if there was a way?" he wondered.

"Don't tell me you've thought of something!" she burst out. "I've been racking my brain, trying to think of some way for us to do everything together without worrying about hats and mittens and heavy coats! What's your plan?"

"It's not exactly a plan," he began, "just an idea. Do you remember that day when the Major from Stavanger came and demanded those deserters?"

She shivered. "I almost froze your hand off by accident, and then you almost scared me away forever when you told me you loved me. If Anna hadn't intervened, that would have been one of the worst days of my life, instead of one of the best."

He nodded. "It was one of my worst days, too, right up to the moment when you asked me to be your sister's brother-in-law. It's funny how that turned things around." He smiled at the memory. "But it's my hand that I was thinking of. It felt cold for a few minutes, and then –"

"It went numb forever," she gasped. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because that's not what happened," he replied easily. "I still have wonderful nerves in this hand. I can feel things when I touch them, I can feel moisture, I can feel heat, I can feel pain…" He caressed her cheek. "I can feel _you_. But I can't feel cold."

"So you could get frostbite in that hand, and you'd never know it?" she wondered.

"I got curious one day," he answered. "I borrowed a pitcher of ice water from the dining-room table and stuck my hand in it, just to see what would happen. I figured it would eventually turn white, or maybe red, from the cold, but it never did. I could feel the water when I swished my hand around, and it felt cold when I stuck my hand in deeper and my wrist got wet… but my right hand just isn't bothered by cold anymore. Kind of like you, I guess."

She considered that. "Okay, so when you buy gloves and mittens, you only need the left ones. I'm relieved that you weren't hurt. But what good is it?"

"I was thinking," he said slowly, "that if you could to that to my hand, maybe you could do it to all of me."

The look on her face strongly suggested that he'd said the wrong thing. The snow that was suddenly cascading down all around them proved it.

It took Elsa a moment to collect herself. She reached across the frosty table and held her new husband's hand, and the snowfall tapered off. But she still looked a lot more stressed than he liked. "Anders, you don't know what you're asking of me! The last time I froze someone, I killed her. As much as I love you, I don't know if _I_ could ever thaw a frozen heart."

"But that was when your power was out of control, wasn't it?" he asked earnestly. "You keep telling me you've got it all under control now."

"This is hard to explain," she said with a shake of her head. "Cold isn't just cold. There are... how can I say this? There are 'flavors' of cold. There's the kind of cold I make when I'm happy, there's a different kind of cold I make when I'm afraid, there's another kind that happens when I'm angry, and there are probably others. They're all different, in ways that other people don't notice; I might be the only one who can tell the difference. It's not just cold, colder, and coldest. If I was going to do the same thing to the rest of you that I did to your hand, I'd have to come up with the exact same mix of anger and fear that I felt on that day, at that moment, and I don't want to _make_ myself be angry or scared. If I got it wrong, I'd only freeze you solid. I _will not_ risk that, not on anybody and especially not on you."

"It would mean a lot to me if I could go anywhere with you, and do anything with you, without having to bundle up," he said hopefully.

"It would mean even more to _me_ if we could live our entire lives together," she said, in her best I-love-you tone. He took the hint and let the matter drop.


	2. Chapter 2

**Growing Together** Chapter 2

Anders brought up the subject of cold-resistance once or twice over the next three days, and Elsa gently but firmly shot the idea down every time. Matters finally came to a head while they were out for a walk on the mountain. He slipped on an icy rock outcrop that was covered by snow, and slid downhill on his back nearly eighty feet. By the time Elsa got to him, his head-first slide had jammed nearly a cubic foot of snow down his collar into his coat. He was shivering violently when they got back to the ice palace, and it took her nearly half an hour to warm him up enough that his lips were no longer blue.

"I hate to say this again," he said quietly, "but if the cold didn't bother me, this wouldn't have been a problem."

She stiffened for a moment, then relaxed and laid her head on his shoulder. "Anders, please don't ask me to kill you."

"What if we took some precautions to keep that from happening?" he wondered.

"Like what?" she asked, fearing that the answer might be so reasonable that she'd have no choice but to agree.

"We could slide down the mountain to the palace at night," he began. "The guards will let us in, and they'll obey orders to keep their mouths shut. We'll hide in the royal suite, and we'll build a big fire in the fireplace, so you won't have to warm me up all by yourself. If anything goes wrong, Kristoff and Anna are just two doors down; they can take me to the trolls if they have to. Once I'm up and about, we'll sneak back up the mountain and start _really_ enjoying our honeymoon together."

She thought for a few seconds. "Does this really mean that much to you?"

"Not as much as you mean to me," he replied, letting her braid trail through his hand. "If you're absolutely, totally against it, then I won't make you miserable over it." He glanced up at the ceiling of the ice palace. "I just want to be with you, and also be warm."

She thought it over some more. A very light dusting of snow began falling all around them. "Never mind," he said quickly. "I won't bring it up again."

To his great surprise, she held his face in her hands and kissed him. "Anders, just because I'm afraid of everything that's unfamiliar to me, that isn't always a good reason to refuse to do something. You've shown that you want what's best for the both of us, and your plans are usually good ones." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I trust you. If you really think it's a good idea, I'll do it." Then her eyes snapped open again. "But if you die, I swear I'll never forgive you!"

He embraced her wordlessly. _That kind of trust is the greatest gift she could ever give,_ he thought, _much greater than immunity to cold. No matter what I do in life, I must never, __ever__ betray that trust_.

They waited until after sunset, then rode down the mountainside in a toboggan made of ice. When they reached the snow line, Elsa made an icy path for them, with slightly raised edges so they didn't slide off the side of it. She also kept them from moving too fast; plowing into a tree wasn't high on their list of things to do that night. He just held onto her and tried to enjoy the ride. They got off and walked when they approached the outskirts of the capital.

When they reached the town, the streets were empty. Everyone was sound asleep except the occasional night watchman. Those watchmen would certainly have recognized their Queen, but she was wearing a heavy coat with a hood that hid her easily-recognized hair. Queen and Prince-Consort made their way toward the palace unrecognized... until they approached the gates. The palace guards would know their Queen anywhere.

"Your Highness!" they exclaimed, and snapped to attention.

"Shh!" she ordered, with a finger to her lips. "No one must know that we're here. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, we're away on our honeymoon." They nodded, assuming that some vital matter of state had brought them back to Arendelle's capital, and opened the gates to let their sovereign in.

The inside of the palace was dimly lit, quiet, and empty. They didn't need lights to find their way, of course. They eased the door of the royal suite open, slipped inside, and closed it quietly. "We made it," she sighed.

"I was convinced we were going to bump into Anna or Kristoff in the halls," he admitted as he took off his coat and his many layers of warm outerwear. There was plenty of firewood stacked beside the fireplace, and while Elsa had little or no experience starting fires, Anders had been doing it all his life. They soon had a good blaze going.

"Okay," she said nervously. "What's the plan?"

"We'll wait until the fire has been burning for a while. The fireplace itself has to be warm, so it's throwing as much heat as possible," he began, trying to hide his own nervousness. "I'll lie on some blankets right in front of the fire. You'll hit me with just the right kind of cold, from head to toe; then I'll roll over and you'll do it again on the other side of me. Then you'll wrap the both of us in the blankets, and keep me warm until I'm back to normal."

"I'm still nervous about this," she quavered.

He held her hands. "I trust you completely, Elsa. I know you can do this. Once it's done, we can go anywhere together, and do anything together, no matter how chilly it is!" He smiled at her. "I'm really looking forward to that."

"Then why are your hands shaking?" she asked.

"I'll be honest. When you froze my hand by accident, it hurt. When you freeze all of me, it's probably going to hurt more." He suddenly looked at her very intensely. "Elsa, whatever happens, don't stop when you're halfway done! If only my front half can resist the cold, that's useless; I'll have gone through all this for nothing. Promise me you'll finish what we're starting." She nodded solemnly.

They sat on the floor in front of the fire for nearly an hour, adding logs now and then, trying to act normal with each other and failing. At last, he said, "I think the fireplace is as hot as it's going to get. There's nothing to be gained by stalling any longer. Shall we do this?" She nodded with wide eyes. He lay down on the blankets and gazed steadily at her. "I love you, Elsa." She nodded, held her hands out in front of herself, and thought about the perfect mix of anger and fear that would duplicate the cold blast she'd unleashed by accident, those many months ago.

She saw him cringe, and hesitated. "Is this really going to hurt you?"

"Sometimes we have to go through pain to do something worthwhile," he answered. "I'm told that when a lady has a baby, it hurts like crazy, but that hasn't stopped ladies from having babies, because the baby is worth it. This is worth it to me."

"You're sure?"

"Completely sure," he nodded, and braced himself again. She held out her hands with fingers spread, took a deep breath, and tried to recall just how angry and afraid she'd been when she'd left that meeting with Major Harstad.

When her cold wave hit the tops of his feet, he went rigid and forced himself not to scream. She swept the wave up his legs and torso to his head; his hair and moustache went white with frost. "Halfway done," he gasped, and rolled over. "Finish it." She took another deep breath and swept her cold wave down him. He kept his composure until the icy cold hit the soles of his feet. Only then did he scream, and he blacked out a moment later.

"Anders!" she cried, threw herself at him, and wrapped the blankets around the two of them. For the first time in her life, she couldn't say, "The cold never bothered me anyway," because her husband felt as cold as ice, and "bothered" was a horrible understatement. She brushed the frost out of his hair... and his hair was still white. She clung to him, feeling him shiver, desperately wishing for some heat powers to counteract what her cold had done.

"Wake up... wake up... please wake up..." was all she could say.

After ten endless minutes, he stirred slightly. "Anders, are you all right?" she begged.

"Cold cold cold cold cold," was all he could whisper. She could barely contain her relief! He was coming around on his own; he wouldn't need a visit to the trolls in order to save his life. Whether he'd gain immunity to chilly temperatures no longer mattered to her; she just wanted her husband back, and it looked like she was going to get him.

It was around that time that an important part of their plan began to unravel. The guard at the gates changed at midnight, and the guards coming off duty obeyed their orders to say nothing about the Queen's presence in the castle. The new guards noticed smoke and sparks rising from the chimney of the royal suite. They knew that the Queen and her new husband were away on their honeymoon. The only possible conclusion was that a fire had broken out in the royal chambers. One of them ran to notify Kai and Gerda.

Anders slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the face of his Queen, barely three inches from his face, her huge blue eyes full of concern that turned to relief when she saw him looking at her. At that moment, the door flew open and a dozen servants with buckets of water burst in, looking for the fire they were supposed to put out. All they saw was their Queen and their new Prince, wrapped in blankets by the fireplace, looking back at them in surprise and astonishment. The ones in front stopped short, turning crimson from embarrassment, and the ones behind them piled into them, slopping cold water all over everyone.

From the hallway, Kai called, "What's going on in there?!" He and Gerda had taken charge of the emergency. He saw no flicker of flames from inside the suite, only a human logjam.

He heard the first servant stammer, "The Queen... the Prince... they weren't expecting company." Gerda covered her mouth in shock, and Kai did a facepalm. From within the suite, they heard Elsa stammer, "You're, umm, you're dismissed." The servants almost fought each other to get out of the suite, their faces still bright red. As soon as the last one was out, Kai slammed the door shut and called, "My deepest apologies, Your Highnesses! We thought there was a fire!"

"No fire, just a... a slight change in our honeymoon plans," he heard his sovereign say. "We'll be going back to our honeymoon location as soon as we're ready."

Kai wasn't sure if he should answer that, but that was when he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was a drowsy Princess Anna, wearing a nightgown and carrying a candle. "What's going on?" she asked sleepily.

"Uhh... nothing, Your Excellency. Just a fire drill." He wanted to hit himself for sounding so lame, but that was beneath the dignity of a royal major-domo.

"That's nice," she yawned. "Next time, keep the noise down." She stumbled back to her suite and returned to bed. Prince Kristoff slept through the whole thing. Gerda sent all the servants back to bed, then turned to Kai. "Did we do something wrong?"

"This sort of thing never happened in years gone by," he said with a shake of his head.

Inside the suite, Elsa was nearly beside herself with relief. "Anders, can you hear me?"

"Mm-hmm," he nodded, still shivering.

"Are you all right?"

"Cold. Feeling warmer." He took a deep breath. "Are the servants going to wake us up every morning like that?"

It wasn't that funny, but Elsa was so relieved, she laughed out loud. Her laughter was always his favorite sound; he wrapped his arms tightly around her and enjoyed her warmth. After a few more minutes, his shivering stopped.

"Do you think you're going to be all right?" she asked, still concerned.

"I think so," he said quietly.

"Do you still need to hold me so tightly to stay warm?"

"No," he half-smiled. "I'm holding you so tightly because I can." That was when she knew he was going to be okay. She kissed him, he kissed her back, and... well, they left the royal suite a lot later than they'd planned to. But they did manage to sneak out of the palace long before the sun came up. Once they were out of the town, Elsa made another toboggan, laid an ice track in front of them, and propelled them uphill with bursts of ice from her hand. They were soon at the base of her icy stairway, with their ice palace waiting for them on the other side.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked. "Take off that heavy coat so we can see how well it worked!"

"I admit, I'm a little nervous," he said as he stood up. "I know you can do it, but there were so many things that could have gone wrong."

"You mean we might have gone through all this for nothing!?" she demanded.

"No matter how my cold-resistance worked out, we _didn't_ go through all this for nothing," he said softly, and cupped her chin with his hand. "We learned some things about trusting each other that we didn't know before, things that some couples never learn. Those things are probably more valuable to us than me being able to ignore the cold." He waited until she smiled; then he unbuttoned his coat and dropped it on the toboggan.

He faced into the chill wind, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. The wind blew his white hair straight back. After a moment, he held his arms out at his sides and fell backwards into the snow. He spent a few seconds making a snow angel, then sat up. "This is amazing!" he exclaimed. "It's like a day at the beach!" He grinned, made a quick snowball with his bare hands, and tossed it half-heartedly at his bride. She pointed at it; the snowball made a U-turn in mid-air, went back the way it came, and smacked the Prince-Consort in the forehead. He brushed the snow off with one hand. "Will I ever learn?" he grinned. "You did it! You really _did_ it for me!" Her own grin turned into a full smile.

"Let it blow! Let it snow! Now you're like the one you adore!  
"Let it blow! Let it snow! Don't need hats and gloves – what for?  
"You won't wear coats like yesterday!  
"Let the storm rage on! The cold will not bother you any day."

He stood and brushed the snow off his bare arms. "And now, my lovely bride, now that I can _really_ appreciate your ice palace, let's head up those stairs and get on with our honeymoon."

She smiled back. "You've got it, my amazing Prince!" They ran up the stairs, laughing like children as they raced each other. He won by a few feet, but stopped and held the door so she could enter first. Then he followed her in, and the door swung shut behind them.


	3. Chapter 3

**Growing Together** Chapter 3

Three days later, when Anna, Kristoff and Sven reached the top of the mountain with the honeymooners' weekly batch of food, they beheld a sight that stunned them. The Queen of Arendelle was finishing the royally-dignified task of burying her Prince-Consort in the snow, with nothing visible except his face and his feet. His _bare_ feet. From what they could see, he wasn't unhappy about the situation; in fact, he was wiggling his toes. Elsa seemed rather cheerful about it, too. When she saw them arrive on the other side of the chasm, she waved happily, then resumed her work.

Prince and Princess stood motionless, their mouths hanging open, totally unsure how to handle this situation. They glanced at each other; they stared at Elsa; they looked at Sven as though he might have an idea. (He was eating snow and was oblivious to what was going on.) Finally, they each took a bundle of food, climbed the icy stairs that crossed the gorge, and stopped next to the royal couple.

"Oh, hi," Anders smiled from his face-sized hole in the snow. "I forgot today was delivery day." He tried to stand, but the snow packed on top of him kept him from moving. "Elsa, could you give me a hand here? I'd like to greet our guests, but I can't get up."

"Say 'please'," she smiled.

"Please, Your Majesty, I humbly request that you permit me to stand up."

"All right. You _did_ ask nicely." She gestured skyward with one hand, and most of the snow that covered Anders drifted upward until the wind caught it and carried it away. He stood up and brushed the rest of the snow off his shirt and slacks, which were the heaviest clothing he was wearing. Kristoff nearly dropped his bundle.

"Uhhh…" Anna struggled for words. "Would you mind telling me what's going on?"

"It's a trust exercise," Anders explained. "Elsa showed a huge amount of trust in me a few days ago, and I thought it would be fair to show her that I trust her, too. When I'm buried like that, I can't move; I'm completely dependent on her to get me out of the snow." He turned to his bride. "Did I pass the test?"

"I guess so," she replied, looking thoughtful, "but it would have meant more if I could have left you there for an hour or two. Maybe we'll try again tomorrow?"

"That's not what I meant!" Anna burst out. "Anders, where's your coat? And your hat, and your mittens, and your boots, and your scarf, and your layers of heavy clothing?"

"And your _mind?_" Kristoff added. "Have you _lost_ it?"

"He's still got his mind," Elsa replied, "and he left all that other stuff inside."

"It kept getting in my way," Anders added.

"Okay, knock it off, you two!" Anna ordered. "You know what we're trying to say! We're up here on the top of this mountain, with a balmy, fun-in-the-sun climate that can give you frostbite on your spleen, and you two are acting like it's a day at the beach! That's normal for you, Elsa, although I'm not used to seeing you smile this much, but… Anders, why aren't you dead from the cold, or numb from frostbite? What in the _world_ is going _on_ here?"

"I'm enjoying my wife's wedding gift to me," he smiled. "She shared something very special with me so we can do everything together from now on."

It was Kristoff who finally figured it out. "She did something cold to you, so the cold doesn't bother you anymore?" The newlyweds nodded.

"_How_ did you do _that?_" Anna demanded.

"The hard way," Anders replied. "I don't recommend it for anyone who doesn't really need it. Besides, it stresses my wife out, and I don't like that. But we've got many, many years to spend together, and it bothered me that I had to dress for foul weather in her favorite climate. Now we're really compatible."

"I don't suppose she gave you her powers over cold, too?" Kristoff asked speculatively.

"We've tried everything," Elsa answered. "He can't even make a snowflake fly. I guess my powers are non-transferable. Arendelle will have to get along with just one ruler who can make it snow."

"One is plenty," Anna commented. "Anders, would you _please_ put your coat on, just for me? I'm feeling cold just from looking at you!"

"But I just took it off!" he mock-protested. "I'll tell you what – I'll grab a bundle off the sled and join you inside, and if you still want me to dress warmly when we're indoors, I guess I'll do it to be nice. After all, princes are supposed to set a good example for everybody else." He scampered down the stairway, seemingly having no problems with slipping on the ice, and soon rejoined them with a bundle in each arm. They entered the ice palace (which still gave Kristoff goosebumps when he looked at it) and they sat down in some comfortable-looking ice furniture that Elsa had created that morning, complete with snow-cloud cushions.

Elsa wanted to hear the news of the kingdom, but Anna refused to divulge a single detail until Elsa and Anders explained every aspect of what they'd done. Anna was the queen of stubbornness when she wanted to be, and they all knew it, so Elsa yielded and told them the story.

"So _that's_ what was going on in the royal suite the other night!" Anna burst out. "Kai told me it was a fire drill!"

"He was right, from a certain point of view," Anders said, and described the embarrassing scene when the servants burst in. Anna giggled, and Kristoff was nearly howling with laughter. The Princess had to give him a quick elbow in the ribs to settle him down.

"Royal dignity," she whispered.

"Do you think it would ruin our public image if the people knew that their leaders had to deal with humiliations like that in their private lives?" Elsa wondered.

"All I know is, I'm glad we can drop our royal façades and act like ordinary people when it's just us," Anna decided.

"I could live without the royal elbow, that's for sure," Kristoff added, with a glance at Anna. "Anders, now that you're cold-proof, what happens next?"

"In public, I'm going to act and dress like nothing has changed," the Prince-Consort said thoughtfully. "It might be best if the kingdom still thinks of me as a totally ordinary guy with a crown on his head."

"And completely white hair," Kristoff added. "People will wonder how _that_ happened. It's not the usual consequence of going on your honeymoon."

"I think it makes him look distinguished," Anna said firmly. "It looks way better on you than it did on me."

"No argument," Elsa decided. They chatted the afternoon away; Anna and Kristoff prepared to leave only because they didn't want to finish their homeward trip in the dark.

"Hey, you never gave me the news of the kingdom!" Elsa complained.

"There's only one news item," Kristoff said at the door, "and that's that Stavanger and Glauerhafen are looking for a way to end their war without making either side look like the loser. Since Arendelle is right in the middle of the two of them, both their rulers are willing for us to chair a peace conference."

"Tell them we're quite willing," Elsa decided. "It's just a matter of time until we get sucked into that war, unless we can find a way to stop it first. But they'll have to wait until my honeymoon is over."

"First things first?" Anna giggled.

"You got it," her sister smiled.

There wasn't much to say about the rest of their honeymoon, in the sense that nothing happened that hadn't happened already. They both knew that, once they returned to their daily routines, their royal schedules would keep them very busy, and would often take them in opposite directions; it might be years before they could spend any amount of time alone together again. They made the most of the time they had. When Anna and Kristoff rode the sled up the mountain to bring them home at the end of their month-long honeymoon, they were startled to realize that Elsa and Anders were slightly tanned from all the time they'd spent outdoors. Suntans were extremely uncommon among the nobility, especially in Norway.

"I suppose we'll have to get ourselves out of honeymoon mode and get back to business," Anders sighed as the town came into view.

"You'll definitely have to get back into the royal-dignity habit," Anna told them from the front seat of the sled, and put on a mock-serious face. "The kingdom expects a sober, serious, respectable sovereign!" Elsa had to laugh at her sister's attempt to look and sound respectable.

As they entered the town, Kristoff had to slow Sven down to a walk. People were thronging the streets to welcome their Queen and their new Prince back to the capital. Just like that, the honeymoon had to end. They sat straight in their seats, holding hands instead of holding each other, looking mildly happy instead of laughing, and giving royal waves to all the people. They would occasionally glance at each other and give each other a special smile, but they quickly hid it and resumed waving to the crowds.

Once they arrived in the palace courtyard, Kai and Gerda rushed out to meet them. Theirs was an unusual position – they were common-born servants, but they had served so long and so faithfully that Elsa and Anna regarded them more like family than employees. Gerda was probably the only commoner in the kingdom who could get away with hugging the Queen, and she did so today. Kai was only slightly more reserved as he pumped Anders' hand.

"Welcome home, Your Highnesses. It's good to see you again; I hope you enjoyed your time together. Nothing in the palace has changed, except that we removed some of the more feminine decorations from the royal suite, as you requested. May I inquire if there will be any more... fire drills... in the near future?"

Anders snorted; Elsa did a pretty good job of keeping a straight face. "If there are, we will definitely let you know in advance." She and her husband wandered inside; he leaned over and whispered something in her ear that made her laugh out loud.

Back in the courtyard, Kristoff turned to Anna. "Is that the same Elsa who panicked and froze the whole kingdom? She's like a different lady now."

"I haven't seen her so playful since she was a small child," Anna nodded. "It's as if she's reclaiming a piece of the childhood that got taken away from her. I couldn't be happier for her, but I hope the two of them don't start a giggling fit in the middle of a Nobles' Council meeting."

"They're not dummies, and they can help each other stay straight and dignified," Kristoff decided. "But I won't be a bit surprised if they start playing footsie with each other under the Council table."

Anna gave him a sly look, then reached over with her boot and gave his foot a nudge. He realized that the Queen hadn't cornered the market on playfulness. Well, he could play that game, too. "Tickle fight!" he shouted, Anna shrieked and ran, and for the next few minutes, the Royal Palace of Arendelle was one of the least dignified, but happiest, places in all Scandinavia.


	4. Chapter 4

**Growing Together** Chapter 4

The next day was a busy one. In the morning, the kingdom turned out for Prince Anders' coronation ceremony, followed by a formal luncheon; in the afternoon, Kai had scheduled the monthly meeting of the Nobles' Council; and in the evening, they held a royal ball to officially welcome the royal couple home from their honeymoon.

The coronation, like most such ceremonies, was long, tedious, and full of traditions that nobody understood anymore. Anders knelt before the bishop and answered "I will" to a series of vows and charges that were quite similar to the vows that Elsa had had to make when she accepted the throne of Arendelle. The main differences were that he received a lot less authority than she did, and his crown was a lot bigger and heavier than hers. She stood beside him, trying to look solemn when she was bursting with joy and pride inside. It still made her a little nervous when the bishop got to the "extending the royal line" part of the vows. _The last time I heard those words, I wondered what kind of man would ever want to marry me. Now I know. My big worry is whether my cold powers will mess up the extending-the-line part. Time will tell, I guess._

Princess Anna and Prince Kristoff stood off to the side, looking serious, as the occasion demanded. _Anders has put me in a strange position,_ Anna thought. _I'm still number two in line for the throne, but now that he's the Prince-Consort, that makes me number three in terms of royal honors and position. It's a good thing I don't care about that stuff. Even if I did, who would I complain to? I'm the one who brought those two together in the first place._

Kristoff was also thoughtful. _I'm actually glad there's a prince who outranks me now. I'm still uncomfortable wearing this fancy suit, and being waited on by servants, and being called 'Your Excellency.' I'm not that excellent, really! They can dress me up and teach me manners, but I'm still plain ol' Kristoff on the inside. If it wasn't for this gorgeous lady who's holding my arm, I'd rather be selling ice and schlepping around the countryside with Sven. Anders can have the honors and the fanfares. He seems to handle them better than me anyway._

Anders' thoughts were probably the most unsettled. _How did this happen to me? It seems like, two days ago, I was happily buying and selling wool with the other merchants; yesterday, I was pretending to be a baron in a Nobles' Council that wished I would go away; and today, I'm wearing this heavy crown, promising to take good care of the whole kingdom, and the most beautiful lady in the world is standing next to me with my ring on her finger. I'm not complaining, mind you, and I'd never go back to my wool, but... wow! What happened to me?_

When the ceremony was finished and he was formally introduced with all his new titles, he stood and offered his arm to the Queen, who took it gracefully. All the guests rose and politely applauded. He was officially a Prince, with titles and honors and a boat-load of ceremonial responsibilities, but only one job of any real significance: help the Queen. _There's nothing I'd rather do, and the kingdom will pay me to do it!_ he thought. _Nice work if you can get it_.

The luncheon was attended by everyone of any importance in the kingdom, and a few nobles from other kingdoms who happened to be in Arendelle that day. It was a fairly quiet and subdued affair. The purpose was to give the nobles and the important common folk a chance to meet the new Prince, but Arendelle's nobles already knew him (and secretly resented his sudden rise to a position above them), and many of the senior merchants already knew him from his wool-trading days. There was a small amount of quiet gossip about the fact that his hair had turned white during his honeymoon; a few of the men exchanged private jokes about how the Queen had worn him out. The women mostly noticed how inseparable the two of them were.

Then came the meeting of the Council. It made sense to hold this meeting today, because all the nobles had to be in town for the coronation anyway, but it made for a long, tiring day for the people who had to attend all the social functions. Elsa took her place at the head of the table, with Prince Anders on her right, and Anna and Kristoff next to him. On her left sat the Duchess of Potet, smug and satisfied because she'd finally achieved her life's ambition – to sit in the place of honor next to the Queen. Next in order of rank was the new Duke of Erl, a considerably younger man than his brother, the prior Duke. He had been confirmed in his new office just two months ago, which made him the most junior nobleman in the room, but the importance of his dukedom entitled him to the number-two seat. Then came the three counts – money-loving Duku, Nelsen the master of discord, and fair-minded Basi, followed by the Baron of Northeast, formerly known as the Duke of Erl until he'd disgraced himself (which was the public term they used for trying and failing to murder Prince Anders twice). He was required by royal command to keep a small white poodle with him whenever he was in public view; it sat obediently at his feet. His wife was quite taken with the creature, and had gotten in the habit of tying colorful bows around its neck. Today's bow was pink. Kai was at the foot of the table, taking notes. They all stood when the Queen entered, and waited until she sat before they took their seats again.

"Welcome back, Your Highness," Potet began. "We trust that you are well-rested and ready to resume your royal duties?"

"You need never fear about me and my duty, Duchess," Elsa said patiently, then shot a sly glance at Anders. "In fact, I've found that doing my duty sometimes leads me into the most delightful situations imaginable." The duchess had no idea what she was referring to, so she just nodded.

"I've been informed that there are some interesting developments among our neighboring nations," Elsa went on, "but it would please me to hear from each of you about the state of your respective realms first. After all, the kingdom is my first responsibility. Duchess?"

"Potet is doing quite well in all respects, Your Highness," the Duchess replied crisply. "One surprising development is our jewelry trade. When it became known that one of my jewelers was responsible for your unique engagement ring, demand for my people's jewelry work increased by over twenty percent. I've been able to import skilled jewelers from other lands to meet the demand, and the additional revenue has been good for the entire duchy. I have to thank you for that."

_You have to thank Anders for that,_ Elsa thought, _but you'll never admit it_. She contented herself with saying, "I am pleased that things are going well," and glanced at the new Duke. He offered a similar report, as did the three counts. The new Baron of Northeast had to admit that while no one was starving, things weren't going as smoothly as he might have liked.

"There is someone nearby with practical experience in running Northeast and making it prosper," the queen said smugly. "I'm sure he would gladly share his experience with you, if you were to ask him." _Which you probably won't do until the Underworld freezes over, but that's your loss,_ she thought. "Now, will one of you please give me some details on what's happening with our almost-friendly neighbors?"

"If I may, Your Highness?" Count Duku began. "About three weeks ago, I was approached in private by an agent from the King of Stavanger. He said his sovereign wanted to end the war with Glauerhafen, but didn't want to simply stop fighting, or it would make him look weak and could cause domestic unrest in his kingdom. He asked if we might be willing to serve as go-betweens. I indicated that you would probably agree in principle, but I could not speak for you, and, as everyone knew, you were not serving in your official capacity at that time."

"A few days after that," Basi added, "I was contacted, also in secret, by an influential friend in Glauerhafen. He had a similar message. We compared notes when we held an informal Council meeting two weeks ago, and realized that we were in an ideal position, not only to end their useless war, but to arrange the terms so that we might benefit in some way. Obviously, the final decision is yours, but all six of us agree that this is an opportunity not to be missed."

"Indeed." Elsa nodded. "Ending the war would definitely be a feather in Arendelle's cap; it would give our own agents a great deal more leverage when they deal with the nations around us. I assume that the peace conference would take place here, in the castle?"

"No, Your Highness," Potet replied. "Both parties want the negotiations to occur somewhere more distant from each other. Bergen has offered to host the talks."

"Bergen?!" Elsa looked alarmed. "But that means I'd have to travel by ship to get there!"

"It's just a four-day journey at most, Your Highness," Nelsen said, trying to sound encouraging. "You won't be away from Arendelle for very long."

That wasn't the point. A part of Elsa had never fully recovered from the shock of losing her parents in a shipwreck. From that day to the present, she had refused to travel by ship, fearful that she might die in a similar accident. This had sometimes posed problems to Kai when he had to arrange other modes of transport for his sovereign, and it nearly caused an incident when she thought she'd lost her sister at sea last year, but so far, everyone around her had been able to make adjustments and work around her fear. This time, it would be different; this time, there was no way around a sea journey, and she knew it. Her sudden nervousness was obvious to those who knew her well. She saw Anna tense up, and she half-expected her sister to jump out of her chair to comfort her, which would have been embarrassing in the middle of a Council meeting.

Instead, she felt a sudden light pressure on the top of her foot. She glanced at Anders, startled; he just smiled back at her. He was playing footsie with her under the table! His improvised distraction worked. Her nervousness faded away; there was no risk of a snowstorm in the Council chamber. She'd still have to deal with her fear of sea travel, but she didn't have to do it here or now. She agreed to the suggested terms; the next day, she would send royal messengers to Glauerhafen, Stavanger, and Bergen. Then she asked for recommendations on how to handle the role of peacemaker.

"You'll have to fix it so each side gets something," the new Duke of Erl suggested. "They've fought each other to a draw, but they've probably been telling their people that the war was going well. They need some kind of prize to show their people that the war wasn't just a waste of time, wealth, and blood."

"But if they both get something, that means they'll both have to give up something, too," Anna objected. "How will that make anything better?"

Potet knew the answer to that one. "If they each have something to brag about, they just won't tell their people what they're giving up in return. It's a classic rulership technique. The hard part is balancing the two sides so each leader thinks he's getting more than the other one."

"Yes," the Baron agreed, "and the way to do that is –"

Nelsen talked right over him. "The way to do that is to know the two rulers, and appeal to each one's personal sense of greed. For instance, we know that the King of Stavanger loves gold more than anything else, so his share of the peace treaty will probably involve an indemnity payment in gold coins."

"Glauerhafen will probably agree to that in principle – they're a wealthy duchy," Elsa nodded. "It will depend on the amount. What should I offer them in return?"

"Glauerhafen makes almost all their money from trade," Basi thought out loud. "We've already opened Stavanger's markets for trade, a little bit. If Glauerhafen could gain access to Stavanger's markets, they could regain their indemnity within a few years, and eventually come out ahead on the deal."

"But Stavanger will figure that out, won't they?" Kristoff asked. "They'll say a deal like that isn't fair."

"Then grease the skids a little, Your Highness," Nelsen replied. "Glauerhafen will have to include some extra gold that doesn't go to the Kingdom of Stavanger, but straight into the King's private treasury, so he'll agree to the rest of the terms."

"That's called a bribe," Elsa objected.

"That's called negotiating, Your Highness," Potet answered. "_We_ aren't bribing anyone. If Glauerhafen isn't willing to slip a few coins to the King of Stavanger, then they'll have to add a _lot_ of coins to the overall deal before Stavanger will accept it. Let it be their decision. Either way, you'll have the pleasure of seeing the war ended, our enemies pacified, and our own prestige elevated."

"Can anyone think of an alternate way to handle this, in case Plan A doesn't work out for some reason?" the Queen asked. No one had any other ideas. The decision was made; Queen Elsa would bring peace to her two quarreling neighbors. Kai was left with the unpleasant task of arranging a sea voyage for a sovereign who was mortally afraid of traveling by sea.

The royal ball was almost an afterthought. Elsa and Anders went through the motions and did everything that was expected of them, but their minds were elsewhere. He had to remind her to throw a little snow from her fingertips when they danced together. As soon as the party wound down, the Queen and Prince excused themselves, retired to their royal suite, and were soon fast asleep in each other's arms, which was what they'd wanted all along.


	5. Chapter 5

**Growing Together** Chapter 5

It was going to be a four-day journey by ship from Arendelle to Bergen. The captain and crew were kept busy tacking back and forth into the prevailing wind so they could get where they were going. They didn't pay a lot of attention to their two distinguished passengers. That suited the passengers just fine, because they didn't want their subjects to see how abjectly miserable they were.

Every moment of the journey, Elsa struggled with her lifelong fear of being shipwrecked. That fear had kept her on land all her life, but now, the demands of state forced her to face that fear. It wasn't going well. She spent most of her waking hours on the lee side of the ship so she didn't have to see the worst of the waves, clutching the rail tightly with both hands, speaking only when spoken to. No one spoke to her except her husband, and he didn't have much to say because he was fighting his own affliction: seasickness. As with his last sea journey, he'd had to bend over the rail only once, but he was constantly on the edge of another bout. They stood side by side at the rail, both desperately unhappy, quietly trying to comfort each other. They couldn't do much for each other, but each of them found a small amount of comfort from their own miseries in their attempts to help the other one.

"If you grip that rail any tighter, you're going to embed your fingers in it," Anders said to her on the second morning out. "The captain will be able to sell tickets to see the Queen's own permanent fingerprints on his ship."

"I keep asking myself if this was the last thing my mother and father ever saw," Elsa replied in a very quiet voice, staring out at the waves.

"You _really_ need a distraction," her husband observed.

"Playing footsie isn't going to work this time," she answered. At least she glanced at him and half-smiled, which was a positive sign.

"There's something I'd like you to do for me," he decided. "You see those lifeboats on the deck in front of us? I'd like you to make one just like those, out of ice. Turn it loose on the water and see how it floats. Watch how the wind affects it; watch how the waves affect it. Then I'd like you to make another one with some improvements, and see how that one floats. Keep improving on it until you can make the perfect lifeboat."

"What, exactly, is this supposed to accomplish?" she wondered.

"Two things," he said. "One: it will give you something to think about, aside from what you're afraid of. Two: if, God forbid, we actually have to _use_ a lifeboat, I'll have a lot more confidence in something you made than in those wooden boats."

"Anders, I know you aren't feeling well, but I think it's affecting your mind," she retorted. "Those boats were made by professional boat-makers, to be used by professional sailors! Why would you trust my work more than that?"

"Those boats were made for shuttling people and small cargoes around in harbors, and for short trips from ship to ship," Anders answered. "They weren't made for staying out on the open sea; they get used as lifeboats because they're the only boats on board. I'm convinced that you can do a better job. Come on – let's see what you've got!"

She shrugged, forced herself to let go of the rail, and walked around the ship's boats, which were stacked upside-down on the deck like nesting dolls. Once she'd given them a thorough visual inspection, she gestured out to sea. Snowflakes rose from the spray and foam of the waves, spiraled inward, and formed themselves into an icy replica of the largest boat in mid-air. As soon as it was finished, she withdrew her hand, and the boat splashed into the sea. The wind and waves soon turned it sideways, where it took on water with each wave until it was full. She gestured again, and it melted away almost instantly.

"The sides are low, and that's good for rowing," she decided, "but it's bad for fighting waves." She made another boat with higher sides. This one resisted the waves better, but the wind caught those high sides and pushed it over to an alarming degree. "Maybe it needs more weight in the bottom, to keep it upright." She made another one. Anders smiled, in spite of his discomfort. Usually, when he tried to distract her, it was to keep her power from leaking out under stress. Today, her power _was_ the distraction, but it served the desired purpose – now his wife wasn't so miserable. If she was content, then he was content, even though his digestive system didn't feel so contented.

After a few hours of experimenting, Elsa was happy with her work. She'd created an icy lifeboat with high, rounded sides and a roof, with small holes on top so the occupants could breathe. It couldn't sink, it couldn't take on water, it couldn't capsize, and it would remain intact as long as someone with ice powers was riding inside it. The sailors had watched her at work now and then, but paid her no mind; they assumed she was trying to amuse the Prince-Consort in some way.

The cook was firing up the galley for lunch when the ship shuddered to a stop with a rending crash. Almost everyone on deck was thrown flat; one sailor in the rigging fell into the sea and had to swim back to the ship. The only exception was Elsa, who had resumed her death-grip on the ship's rail. Anders rushed to her side as soon as he could get up off the deck.

"No," she whimpered. "This can't be happening."

"Are you all right?" he asked anxiously.

"This can't be happening," she repeated in a tiny voice. The cold wind began to rise, with hints of snowflakes in the air.

"I have to find out what's going on," he decided. He tried to locate the captain, and found him surrounded by officers and men who needed orders.

A sailor climbed up from belowdecks, his clothing soaking wet, and reported to the captain. "We hit a submerged rock, sir! Water is coming in fast! The pumps can't handle it."

"Will the rock keep the ship from sinking?" the first mate asked him.

"That won't matter in a few minutes," the captain decided. He saw smoke billowing out of the galley and realized that the wood-fired stove had been knocked over. With fire in the bow and water coming in below, he didn't have many options. He snapped out orders to his crew. "Bosun, launch the boats. Number One, see to the safety of the crew; I have to look after our special passengers. Ensign, open the ship's safe; you're responsible for its contents. Midshipman, fetch the ship's papers and the navigation instruments." He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted to the men in the rigging, "Take in all sail! Prepare to abandon ship!"

He turned to Prince Anders. "Your Highness, I'm sorry. This isn't how the voyage was supposed to end. We've struck an uncharted rock, and we have to abandon ship. I'm placing you and the Queen in the first boat."

"Thank you, captain," Anders replied, "but the Queen has been experimenting with lifeboats, and we'll be using one of her boats. We'll be perfectly safe."

"I'm afraid I can't accept that, Your Highness," the captain answered. "I'm under oath to protect you and the Queen, from the moment you stepped onto my ship until the moment you step off. I'm sure the Queen means well, but the wind is rising, the nearest land is miles away, and I can't let you go floating off on your own. Please grab whatever belongings you can't live without, and step into that large boat that's waiting for you. I insist."

Elsa stepped up beside Anders and linked her arm in his. "Thank you for your concern, captain," she said, transforming herself from a frightened passenger into a stately queen so quickly that Anders was startled. "We release you from your oath, and we are giving you a royal command: see to the safety of your crew. The Prince-Consort and I will be fine. We'll meet you on shore."

"This is very much against my better judgment, Your Highness," the captain said.

"Thank you, captain," she replied. "We appreciate your concern. Please see to your duties; your crew needs you. The Prince and I are quite capable of handling any emergency, and we prefer to control our own destinies." Before he could argue any more, she turned away, leading Anders toward their cabin in the stern of the ship.

They had traveled light; they'd planned to buy clothing in Bergen for the peace conference, and had packed only such things as Bergen could not supply, like her jewelry and his sashes and medals. All their vital belongings fit in two small suitcases which Anders could carry easily. He picked them up, then set them down and caught Elsa by the shoulder. "I honestly expected you to fall apart when you realized we were really having a shipwreck," he said.

"I'm slowly learning the art of rising to the occasion and doing what I have to do," she answered with a quavering voice. "I didn't want the sailors to see their sovereign falling apart. I'll probably do that once we're safely inside the lifeboat. Let's go, while I still have some inner strength left." He nodded, picked up their suitcases, and led her to the lee rail of the ship. The deck was closer to the waves than it had been a few minutes ago. Flames were beginning to lick around the galley door. The crew were almost all into the boats; only the captain remained on board, watching to make sure his sovereign got away safely.

She waved her hand and formed the lower half of her lifeboat. Anders climbed in, she handed him the suitcases, and he helped her step off the ship and into her boat. She called, "Thank you for everything, captain!" then gestured again, and the roof formed over their heads. They could see and hear nothing now. The wind and waves would certainly cast them up on the coast of Norway; it was just a matter of time. One day? Two days? They had no way of knowing.

They lay down on the floor of the boat and wrapped their arms around each other, not for warmth (neither of them was bothered by the cold), but because they were going into shock at the realization of what had just happened to them. She began to cry and couldn't stop. He just held her, feeling the rocking of the boat, hoping his stomach would behave, and wondering what unforeseeable adventures waited for them when they reached the shore. He hoped for none. He'd had enough adventures for one lifetime already.


	6. Chapter 6

**Growing Together** Chapter 6

From inside their sealed lifeboat, it was impossible for Elsa and Anders to know how much time had passed. They had some dried food to eat, but not much. The Queen could make drinking water just by allowing part of the boat's roof to melt, then reinforce the melted part with more ice that she created out of thin air. They didn't talk much, because Anders was still miserably seasick from the boat's motion on the waves, and Elsa was still in shock that her worst nightmare had nearly come true.

At last, the boat scraped to a halt on a shore of some kind. They waited a few minutes to be sure they weren't going to be cast back out to sea by the waves. Then Elsa made the top of their boat disappear with a handwave, and they stood up to see where they were.

"Nowhere" would be a good place to start describing it.

There was not a trace of civilization in sight. No buildings, no roads or footpaths, no farmland, no fences or stone walls, _nothing_. There was no beach, just a rocky, narrow strip of land at sea level that rapidly rose to stony hills that offered neither soil nor plant life. Inland, the vegetation looked as much brown as green. They had washed up on a part of the coast that had nothing to offer anyone. If they'd hoped for a quick rescue, their hopes were dashed within seconds. There was no sign of the other lifeboats, either. Apparently, the wind and waves had affected Elsa's special lifeboat differently than the others, and they'd become separated.

"Should we wait for a ship to come along and save us?" Elsa asked.

"No one has any idea where we are," Anders replied thoughtfully. "A rescue ship might take days to get here. We're out of food, and if a storm comes up, we'll be completely exposed here. I think we ought to move inland and try to find food and shelter."

"I can make some shelter for us anywhere, anytime," she answered, "and if a ship _does_ come along, and we're too far inland, we won't see it."

"Okay, we'll compromise," he suggested. "We'll move inland, but stay close enough to the coast that we can still see the ocean. Fair enough?" She nodded; he picked up their suitcases and they climbed up off the shore and into the coastal hills.

The view inland was just as desolate as the view on the shore. There was still no sign of human habitation. "Should we head south or north?" she wondered.

"It depends on whether we're closer to Stavanger to the south, or to Bergen to the north," he thought out loud, "and I have no idea where we are. If we've wound up on an island, it won't matter; we can't go very far in either direction."

"If I remember my geography, there are some good-sized islands just to the south of Bergen," Elsa suggested. "Just to the north of Stavanger is a south-facing peninsula."

"You remember your geography a lot better than I do," Anders admitted. "We'll go north. If we're on an island, we'll soon find out, and if we're on that peninsula, going north will take us toward the mainland." They got their bearings from the sun and headed north. It was slow going. The terrain was rough, and Elsa wasn't wearing walking shoes. They had to stop frequently to rest, and they were also getting hungry.

As sunset approached, Anders looked inland. "I think I see smoke rising."

"What kind of smoke?" Elsa asked him. "Smoke from a fireplace? Smoke from multiple fireplaces? Smoke from a forest fire?"

"Smoke from something that's burning," he shrugged. "It has a pretty good chance of being man-made, so I think we should head toward it." They did so. They crested a low hill, and saw that the smoke was rising from multiple campfires of an army encampment. A quartet of guards from that camp saw them at the same time, and ran toward them with a shout.

"Don't run!" Anders urged his Queen, who had turned to flee. "We can't outrun them, and they'll treat us better if we don't act hostile."

"Who are they?" she asked as they got closer. "I don't recognize those uniforms, and I can't understand what they're saying."

"Me neither," he admitted. Then the guards were upon them. They shouted something in a language Anders had never heard before; he and his bride just shrugged. Finally, the leader gestured toward the camp, and they followed him, with the other three guards behind them, swords drawn. They were marched up to an impressive-looking tent and half-guided, half-shoved in. A man in a fancier uniform than the others sat at a portable writing desk; he listened as the head guard reported something to him.

"Why you here?" he demanded in bad Norwegian.

"We survived a shipwreck, and we were lost," Anders answered. "We were just trying to find food and shelter."

Meanwhile, one of the guards had opened their suitcases. He took one look at the jewelry inside, let out a whistle, and gestured for the fancy man's attention. That man sized up the contents of the cases and gave some quick orders. The cases were closed and given back to Anders, and both of them were led toward an even fancier tent.

"I think I recognize their language," Elsa murmured to him. "They're speaking Spanish."

"Spanish? Here in Stavanger? That doesn't make any –" He broke off as they were guided into the tent. Its sole occupant rose from a chair and checked them out. She smiled sweetly at them.

"Queen Elsa of Arendelle!" she purred. "You're a long way from home. And... what was your name? Baron Anders? No, I remember – you just married the queen! That would make you Prince Anders, wouldn't it? What a lovely promotion for you."

"Princess Urraca of España," Elsa replied with a polite nod. "You're also a long way from home."

"Yes, for now," the dark-haired beauty agreed, "but I'm getting tired of being called 'Princess.' Lovely promotions aren't just for lucky barons. I think 'Queen Urraca' has a much nicer ring to it, don't you think?"

"Perhaps," Anders said, trying not to start trouble. "What land will you be the queen of?"

"Why, Arendelle, of course," she exclaimed, as though it was obvious. "I did give you fair warning that your queen's stubbornness would cost your precious kingdom dearly, so you can't accuse me of being sneaky. You see, we've gotten wind of a plan by Stavanger to invade your charming little kingdom and annex one of your duchies. Unfortunately for you, once Stavanger goes to war, they don't stop until they've won something, and your little peace conference won't offer them nearly enough to satisfy them, so they'll take some of your land instead. We'll send our troops to keep them from taking any more than that one duchy, which will make us look like heroes to the rest of Europe, and will keep us from violating any of those tiresome treaties about European nations not invading each other. Unfortunately, we'll probably be too late to save Arendelle's royal family, so we'll have to put someone else on the throne to keep order. Unfortunate for them, but quite good for me. And now, half of the royal family has just walked right into my camp! I'd call that a sign that God is on my side."

"Did you 'get wind' of this plan with Stavanger, or did you help _arrange_ it?" Anders growled.

"What difference, at this point, does it make?" the Spanish princess shot back. "In the end, Stavanger gets what they want – prosperous land, which they couldn't seem to take away from Glauerhafen. And we'll get what we want – a foothold in Scandinavia, and a place for an ambitious princess to wear a crown without threatening the royal succession in Europe. Not to mention a purging of evil from Scandinavia's royal line." She smirked and walked (with an exaggerated swaying of her hips) right up to Elsa, who was several inches taller. "Are you still going to proclaim your innocence, Bringer of Summer?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Princess," Elsa replied with amazing dignity.

"I think you do," the princess snapped back. "And I intend to find out for sure. I wish I could have brought an Inquisitor with me – they're _so_ clever at making people talk! – but they're in short supply these days. So I'll just have to improvise." She barked a lengthy order in Spanish at her guards. They siezed Anders and led him out of the tent.

"I just ordered my men to tie his hands and feet, weight his ankles, and sink him up to his neck in the pond about a hundred yards away," she gloated. "That pond isn't frozen yet, of course, but it's still cold. _Very_ cold. Your poor husband probably won't last two hours in water like that; he certainly won't last the night." She got right into Elsa's face by standing on tiptoe. "You have three choices, witch. One, you can tell me which mountain pass is the best route for a small army to march into Arendelle. Two, you can show me why they call you the Bringer of Summer. Or three, you can become a widow." She folded her arms. "What will it be, Your Majesty?"

Elsa glared at her. She knew that Urraca's "technique" wouldn't work, because the cold wouldn't do Anders any harm. On the other hand, this princess clearly meant to kill both of them, no matter what they did. If freezing didn't work, she'd try something more lethal without hesitating.

How should she react? If she let her real emotions show, she'd wind up showing some snowflakes and playing right into Urraca's hands. One possible reaction would be fear; could she fake it convincingly? Or she could try to fake anger instead. Was she a good enough actress to fool this princess? She really wished she had Anders nearby to help her. She couldn't decide which role to play, so she decided to be herself for the time being.

"You could teach Machiavelli a thing or two," she said scornfully.

"I choose to take that as a compliment," Urraca replied with a false smile. "Now, what's the best mountain pass for entering Arendelle?"

Elsa folded her arms and glared down at the shorter noblewoman. "Do you seriously think I'd betray my own land and my own people?"

"I was hoping you might," Urraca replied. "It would have saved me a lot of effort. But you Norwegians are known for your stubbornness; I suppose I should have seen this coming. Guards!" Two men appeared at the entrance to the tent. She gave them some orders in Spanish. They tied her hands behind her back and led her away.

**o**

_A/N_  
_At the time of this chapter's posting, this story has just passed the 1000-hit mark. To all the readers who are doing the hitting: thank you, thank you so much._


	7. Chapter 7

**Growing Together** Chapter 7

Elsa was left inside a heavy leather tent full of food and other supplies. She knew there were at least two guards outside, and there were probably more – if this Princess thought Elsa had special powers, she'd take plenty of precautions to keep her royal prisoner on ice.

How could she escape? If her husband was here with her, he'd surely have a wonderful idea to get them out of here and back home safely. But that was half the problem – he was up to his neck in icy water, and she couldn't hear his escape plan until _she_ escaped and set him free. She'd have to work this one out on her own. At least she had some time to think it over. As long as Urraca thought Anders was in her power, both of them were safe.

What would Anna suggest, if she was here? She'd probably say, "Let it go." That was probably good advice, but how should she do it? For a moment, she considered the direct approach – flying icicles to take out the guards – but she wasn't desperate enough to kill. Not yet. Besides, she'd have to take out every soldier in the camp once they saw her running away.

_Saw her. They can't do much to me if they can't see me_. That was the answer! Or was it? Would she be playing into Urraca's hands somehow? _No, she thinks I'm the Bringer of Summer,_ she decided. _She doesn't know about winter; she has no idea what I can really do. She's about to find out_.

First, she had to free her hands, which were tied behind her back. She focused on the rope, willing it to become cold, then colder. It eventually froze and turned brittle; it cracked and broke when she flexed her wrists. She rubbed the circulation back into her hands, then considered her next move.

She gathered her thoughts, then flung her arms up over her head. Outside the tent, she could hear the wind rising. The sides of the tent shook as strong gusts hit them. She couldn't see the snowflakes swirling in that wind, but she knew they were there, and they were getting thicker by the moment. But she'd need more than just a snowstorm. If she was going to get out of here and rescue her husband, she'd need a howling blizzard, a storm severe enough that it could kill. She'd made a storm like that only once, and it hadn't been deliberate that time. How could she recreate the terror that had led her to unleash that violent storm on Arendelle, on the awful day when she'd been imprisoned and tried to flee?

She had spent all her life trying to keep her powers under control. For years, she had failed. Recently, with the help of Anna and Anders, she had finally begun to succeed. Now, she had to undo all those years of progress and let her powers rage uncontrolled. Nothing else could create the storm she needed. That meant she had to let herself feel fear.

She tried to imagine herself tied to a stake, facing a firing squad of Spanish crossbowmen ready to kill her at Urraca's command. The wind outside was blowing harder.

She imagined Anders tied to a stake next to her. The wind found its way under the edges of the tent and began swirling snow around inside.

She imagined Anna tied to a stake on the other side of her. A hurricane-blast of wind ripped the tent's stakes out of the ground and carried it away, a flapping tangle that was quickly lost in the storm. The supplies inside it were scattered across the landscape, and Elsa was almost knocked off her feet. She was stunned at the effects her fear was having on the weather; that caused more fear, and the storm got even worse. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. But it seemed to be working. There was no sign of the guards; they had obviously taken cover.

Now she had to find the pond where the Spaniards had sunk Anders, so she could set him free. That was going to be a problem – she couldn't see more than forty feet in any direction due to the wind-blown snow, and she had no idea where the pond was. She hadn't seen any pond when they were brought into the camp from the western side, so it must be somewhere on the eastern side. Which way was east? She had no way of telling directions; it was nighttime, and thanks to her own strategy, the stars were invisible. Her best guess was to assume that the storm winds were blowing the same way most Norwegian storms blew, from out of the west, so she should make her way downwind. It was hard. Her own winds threatened to knock her over with each step. At least she didn't have to face into the wind and deal with the flying snow in her eyes.

She nearly stepped into the pond before she saw it. "Anders!" she shouted. He might have replied, but she'd never hear his voice in this storm. Would she be able to see him with all these snowflakes filling the air? If he was too far out in the pond, he might as well be invisible to her. She followed the shoreline, straining her eyes to find some sign of – _there!_

His head was about twenty feet from shore. She couldn't think of any way to get to him except to go wading. _So much for royal dignity,_ she thought as she gathered her skirt and stepped into the chilly water. At least the "chilly" part didn't bother her. The bottom was muddy and threatened to pull her shoes off with every step. He was facing away from the wind, which meant he was facing away from her. She waded out until the water was level with her mouth – she didn't dare go any deeper – and reached out and tapped him on the shoulder. He nearly leaped out of the water, he was so startled.

"Elsa!" he exclaimed. "Did you make this storm?" She nodded reluctantly. "Wow! Remind me never to get you mad at me."

"I can't imagine you ever making me as mad as that princess did," Elsa answered. "How am I going to get you out of here?"

"Could you start by cutting the ropes around my hands? They're kind of tight." She raised one hand; the flying snowflakes around her congealed and froze into a small knife with a serrated edge. Working by feel, she sawed at the ropes around Anders' wrists until they parted. As soon as his hands were free, he turned himself around and flung his arms around her. She returned his embrace. The storm began fading almost immediately.

"I was really afraid for you," he whispered. "I know that princess means to kill us both if we let her."

"You were almost drowning, and you were only worried about me?" she marveled. "You stubborn, irrational, wonderful man!" She still wasn't used to how selfless he could be when she was involved, even though she'd seen plenty of proof that his concern about her was unfeigned. When they finally let each other go, she asked, "Now what?"

"Give me the knife," he said. "I can cut the rope off my feet, and then we can get out of here." She handed it to him; he took a deep breath, ducked under the water, and finally bobbed to the surface after about fifteen seconds. "That's one seriously sharp knife," he commented. "If you ever lose your job as queen, I bet you could make a living selling knives."

"Anders, this is one of those moments where I almost wish I _could_ lose my job," she said heartily. "Not only has this princess of España put a death sentence on me because I'm the queen of Arendelle; I've somehow got to figure out how to stop her and Stavanger from invading my homeland when we don't have an army. I could really enjoy being a commoner right about now. Commoners have it easy – they just do what they're told, and they don't have the burden of an entire kingdom on their shoulders."

"But remember, my love," he said as he rested his hands on her shoulders. "You don't have to carry that burden alone."

She gave him another impulsive hug. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Anders. But... what are we going to do?"

"First, we have to get out of this pond and out of this army camp while the storm is still raging," he told her. "Then we'll work on a master plan. Don't give yourself a headache trying to figure it all out by yourself. Getting the headaches is my job. Now, let's get out of here!" She nodded firmly. They waded out of the pond and set out across the snow-swept, wind-battered landscape. Their wet clothing quickly froze solid, but they hardly noticed.


	8. Chapter 8

**Growing Together** Chapter 8

Once they thought they'd gotten well clear of the Spanish camp, Anders took Elsa's hand. "I think we're safe for a while. Can you make this storm ease up? We need to see where we're going."

She looked stricken. "Anders, I can't. I'm really scared… for you, for me, for Anna and Kristoff, for my whole kingdom! These Spaniards mean killing, and if they've teamed up with Stavanger, how are any of us going to survive? In a week, there might not be any more Arendelle!"

He rested his hands on her shoulders; he could feel her shaking. "Elsa, you've been through more stress in the past twenty-four hours than in the whole past year. You've been shipwrecked, you've been set adrift, you've been lost, you've been threatened, you've been imprisoned…" He shook his head. "The fact that you're still on your feet and fighting is a feat in itself. Don't try to solve all our problems at once! Let's take one thing at a time." When she shook her head fearfully, he just took her in his arms and held her, stroking her hair with one hand and whispering, "It's going to be okay," until she began to relax. The ferocity of the storm slowly subsided until it was about as bad as a normal blizzard. They still couldn't see where they were going, but the flying snow didn't hurt their eyes now.

"What are we going to do?" she asked quietly, as though afraid the Spanish might be able to hear her.

"We need to get as far away from this camp as we can before they find out we've escaped," he decided. "We're in the middle of a hostile kingdom, and we're a long way from home."

"It's at least a hundred and fifty miles from here to Arendelle, if we're where we think we are," she recalled.

"And we'll never be able to outmarch trained soldiers," he concluded. "We need to get some horses."

"Can't I just make an ice track along the ground, and push us along in an ice-toboggan?" she asked.

"If anyone sees you doing that, they'll know exactly who we are," Anders replied with a shake of his head. "We have to look like ordinary people, or we'll be captured for sure."

"Okay. Well, how can we pay for horses?" Elsa wondered. "The Princess has all our valuables, and we can't steal. Can we?"

"There's no need to steal," he observed. "You're still wearing some jewelry. That necklace around your neck will easily buy us two horses and some tack."

"Anders… I couldn't do that!" she exclaimed. "This necklace belonged to my mother! It's one of my favorites!"

"We'll work something out, then," he said. "First, we have to find someone who will sell us some riding horses; then we'll figure out the details. For now, we need to find a road, so we can follow it to the nearest town. The Spanish probably camped near a road, so they can march on it when they're ready to move, but not close enough that anyone on that road could see the camp. Let's head north."

"Why north?" she asked.

"Why not?" he replied. "If we don't know which way we should go, then one direction is as good as another. The only direction we _don't_ want is back the way we came." She nodded, and they set off. They got their bearings from the wind direction and made their way through the snow. Elsa's legs grew tired of fighting the snowdrifts, so she walked on top of the snow after a while. "Show-off," Anders muttered.

After what felt like an hour (but was really about half that time), they found a dirt road running east to west. West would take them back to the barren coastline, so they went east. The snow and wind continued unabated. Anders made several attempts to soothe his wife and calm her fears, but got nowhere. This was a storm they would both have to ride out. At least the snow would make it hard for any pursuers to overtake them, and the wind would obscure their footprints after a while.

It was a long, uncomfortable walk, even though the cold didn't bother them. When they finally reached a small town, they found it boarded up against the storm. Anders had to hammer on the door of the stable-keeper's house for nearly five minutes before he finally got a response.

"What do you want?" the man demanded through the barely-opened door.

"We need to rent two riding horses, one saddled for a man and one for a lady," Anders explained.

"I'd be crazy to let my horses out in weather like this!" the man burst out. "Are you crazy, too?"

"No, sir, but we have a long way to go and we can't wait too long to get started," Anders replied. "If you aren't willing to risk your horses, we'll buy them outright."

"I don't think you're carrying enough coin to pay for one horse, never mind two," the man said.

Without a word, Elsa took off her necklace. The man's eyes went wide. "That's worth a lot more than two horses," he exclaimed. "I don't know if I can accept it."

"Fine, here's what we'll do," Anders decided. "You take the necklace, and we'll take the horses. In a week or two, we'll come back with the horses and pay you a fair price for the use of them, and you'll give my wife her necklace back. If we don't return, or if the horses are lost or injured, the necklace is yours. Is that fair?"

The man thought for a fast moment. "All right," he nodded. "Let me get my coat, and I'll show you which horses are yours, and help you get them saddled." In about half an hour, Anders and Elsa were riding at a relaxed pace across the hostile kingdom of Stavanger. Elsa wasn't nearly as practiced in the saddle as her husband, but riding on a road didn't tax her abilities.

"I wonder what that man would say if he knew he'd just helped his kingdom's enemies escape," Anders grinned.

"Technically, Stavanger isn't our enemy yet," Elsa corrected him. "They're planning all kinds of evil against us, but they haven't actually _done_ anything. We need to keep that in mind."

"That's a technicality," he grumbled.

"It is," she nodded, "but that's how the game is played. Kings and kingdoms have risen and fallen over technicalities."

The roads were nearly deserted; the snowstorm was going ahead of them and driving everyone indoors. When they passed a coach, they greeted the coachman politely, so as not to draw any attention to themselves. They succeeded in looking like ordinary people. They were _hungry_ ordinary people, because they had to skip both breakfast and lunch, but hunger was the least of their troubles.

They stopped for the night in a tiny town that didn't even have an inn. One of the local farmers was willing to rent them a spare room for the night, supper and breakfast for each of them, and stabling and fodder for the horses in exchange for one of Anders' gold cuff links. "You look like awfully fancy folks to be traveling without a coach," he commented as they ate their supper.

"We were on our way to a social function when we were waylaid and robbed," Anders explained. "They took our valuables, but they didn't search under our coats, so we still have a few little baubles we can trade."

"Where are you headed?" the farmer wondered.

"Arendelle," Elsa answered. "We have family there."

The old man shook his head. "I hear that Arendelle isn't the best place for a good citizen of Stavanger to be these days. There may be trouble. I hope you get there before it starts." They nodded as they finished their meal.

When they awoke, the snowstorm had diminished to a mild flurry, which made the horses much happier. They made somewhat better time, now that Elsa had gotten a bit more comfortable in the saddle.

"Shall we stop for lunch here?" she asked as they approached a medium-sized town.

"I think we need to skip lunch again," he answered after a moment. "I have one cuff link left, and once that's gone, we'll have no way to pay for our night's lodging. We'll let the horses rest and munch in that pasture for half an hour or so, and then we have to keep going." She nodded; they dismounted and sat on the fence as their horses searched for green grass in the snow and the late-autumn growth.

"This might be the first time in my life I was forced to miss meals and go hungry," she thought out loud. "I can't imagine living this way all the time. Maybe I'll arrange for a bit more of our royal budget to be spent to help feed the poor." Then they resumed riding. They spent this night much like the night before, thankful that no one in these little towns recognized them.

"Can we go a little slower?" she asked wistfully as they set out the next morning. "I'm getting kind of saddle-sore."

"My love, I'd love to go slower for you, but we don't dare," Anders replied. "The mountains that separate Stavanger from Arendelle are up ahead, and they're going to be rough for travelers like us. By the end of today, we need to be on the other side so we can warn our kingdom, and then get ready to help repel an invasion by two armies at once."

"Anders, how are we going to do that? Our Royal Guard will be outnumbered by twenty to one or more!"

He nudged his horse closer to hers, and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Elsa, the Guard can't help us against an invasion. We don't have an army big enough to stop anybody. That's the price we pay for trying to be a peaceful kingdom. If anyone is going to stop the Spanish and the Stavangers, it will have to be you."

"Me?" she blurted out. "I'm willing, but... how?"

"I'm working on some ideas," he said absently. "First, let's get over those mountains. Any idea which of those passes up ahead will be the best one for us to travel on?"

Elsa thought for a moment, then pointed. "That one, to the right. I'm pretty sure that's Farbar Pass. It's the only one for miles that has a road leading through it. That road will lead straight down the other side into the Duchy of Potet. The other passes are completely wild; they'd be a hard hike, and the horses would never make it. No one ever uses them unless they're on the run."

"We're on the run," Anders nodded, "but I don't think we'd be wise to go cross-country when we're in a hurry. Does Stavanger keep guards at the frontier?"

"Normally, no; we've always shared a peaceful border," she said. "They usually have a customs agent up there, watching out for smugglers and stolen goods; we do the same thing. But if these aren't peaceful times, who knows what we'll find at the top of that mountain pass?"

"If that's the only way we can go, then we'll go that way," he decided. "If they've posted guards up there, then we'll tell them we're going to visit family in Arendelle, which is the truth, and we'll hope they don't recognize us." Queen Elsa nodded, and they guided their horses onto the road that led to Farbar Pass.


	9. Chapter 9

**Growing Together** Chapter 9

When a messenger from Bergen reached the palace of Arendelle, informing Princess Anna that her sister and brother-in-law had been involved in a shipwreck and were missing at sea, an actual earthquake would have paled in significance to the shock waves he set off.

Anna's first reaction was to go nearly catatonic. "No," she kept whispering. "No. No." Kristoff had no idea what to do or say, so he just wrapped her up in his arms and held her. That was probably the best thing he could have done anyway. She finally broke down and cried on his shoulder for a few minutes before she pulled herself together.

"What are we going to do?" she asked hoarsely.

"You're the acting ruler until Elsa turns up," her husband replied hesitantly, being very careful not to say the wrong thing. "We aren't facing any crises in the kingdom, so –"

"My sister is lost at sea, and you don't think _that's_ a crisis?" she demanded.

"She's not lost," Kristoff corrected her. "She's missing. That means nobody knows where she is; it _doesn't_ mean anything bad has happened to her. We'll find her. In the meantime, you need to notify the nobles that you're in charge for the time being, and we need to send messengers to Stavanger and Bergen, asking for help searching for her."

Anna took a deep breath. "You're right. Thank you for being strong for me."

"That's why you married me, right?" he smiled. She got up on tiptoes so she could hug his neck, then found Kai and asked him to round up some servants who could serve as messengers. Nine of them were quickly sent out on horseback – one to each of Arendelle's six nobles, one to Glauerhafen, who needed to know that the peace conference would be delayed, one to Bergen, asking for help in looking for the missing royals, and one to Stavanger, who got the same messages as both Glauerhafen and Bergen.

The nobles were all available for an emergency meeting of the Council; their carriages and coaches began arriving within the hour. The meeting began with no one sitting in the Queen's seat. Anna took the first seat on the right, where Anders would usually sit, with Kristoff right next to her. He attended Council meetings even more rarely than she did, but he knew she wanted him nearby for moral support.

"All we know so far," she told them, "is that five lifeboats from my sister's ship washed up on the Bergen coast. The captain said Elsa and Anders drifted away in an ice-boat that she made, and they haven't been seen since then. There were no losses, except for the ship itself."

Count Nelsen was the first to reply. "May we offer you our sincere condolences on your own loss? We realize that you –"

"We haven't lost anybody!" Anna burst out angrily. "Don't put my sister in her grave yet!"

"Your Highness, we need to be realistic," Count Duku cut in. "The messenger from Bergen said there was a strong storm in that area, and the chances of –"

Anna was about to explode; Kristoff spoke before she could let it go. "Count, like I told Anna before, 'missing' doesn't mean the same as 'gone.' Queen Elsa has all her powers at her command, Prince Anders is a fast thinker who will do anything to protect her, and the two of them together can solve just about any problem. They're still alive, they're out there somewhere, and it's just a question of finding them. We are _not_ scheduling any royal funerals!" He held Anna's hand under the table; she gave him a grateful squeeze.

"All right," the Duchess of Potet nodded. "We'll agree, for the moment, that the Queen is coming back. The question facing us is, what do we do now? Since the Council has more experience in ruling Arendelle than you do, Princess Anna, I would like to suggest that we –"

"Forget it!" This time, Anna did explode. "Have you forgotten the law? The nobles can rule Arendelle only if there is no member of the royal family who can reign, and here I am."

"You are very inexperienced, Your Excellency," Count Nelsen observed.

"So was Elsa on her coronation day," Anna shot back.

"Perhaps we should put it to a vote of the Council," the Baron of Northeast said quickly, before anyone could interrupt him. He didn't care for being the lowest-ranking noble in the Council, or the way the others ignored him whenever they could.

"That sounds reasonable," Potet nodded.

"That sounds _illegal,_" Kristoff said firmly. "Anna is next in line for the throne, so she's our ruler until Elsa returns. I'm pretty sure that's the law."

"Look, this infighting is a waste of time," Count Basi exclaimed. "Our most pressing issue is to find the queen, not go to war over who will make the decisions in her absence."

"But we need to settle, once and for all, who's in charge," the Duchess retorted.

"Fine," Anna snapped. She got up and sat down in the queen's seat at the head of the table. "It's settled. Any questions?" Some of the nobles looked like they were considering a challenge to her authority, but then Kristoff stood up, stretched to his full height, and cracked his knuckles. All dissent ended. He made his gesture look less threatening by stepping over to the seat Anna had just vacated and sitting down there, as though he'd meant to do it all along. He was no diplomat; he was here to support his wife, and that was exactly what he was going to do, even if he had to resort to brute-force intimidation to do it.

"Now, then," Anna continued. "I've sent messengers to Bergen and Stavanger, asking their help in the search. The messenger to Stavanger is also going to tell them that the peace conference is on hold, seeing how the moderator is… out of sight for the time being. I sent a messenger to Glauerhafen to tell them the same thing. Can anyone think of anything else we can do?"

"If you haven't sent out the Coast Guard already, then you probably should," Count Duku thought out loud. "They can search our own waters, just in case the queen's lifeboat was carried south." Basi and the new Duke of Erl nodded; they knew how much Duku loved his yachts, so it was natural that he'd think in terms of ships.

"Kai?" Anna asked.

"One of our three cutters is already at sea, searching for smugglers," Kai said after consulting his notes. "The second is laid up for repairs, but we could send out the third one as soon as we call up the crew. That could be done before the end of the day today."

"See that it's done," Anna said crisply. "And make sure they catch up with the first one and tell them that finding the queen is more important than catching smugglers." Kai nodded and made a note. "Is there anything else we can do?"

They were interrupted by a knock at the door. A disheveled man wearing a dirty Palace Guard uniform burst in, puffing for breath. "Your Highness, Your Excellencies, I'm sorry to intrude, but the Captain of the Guard told me to report to you at once. I was sent to bring messages to the Kingdom of Stavanger, regarding the current crisis. I was turned back at the crossing point. Stavanger has closed its borders to us."

They all stared at each other for a few moments. Kristoff broke the silence. "That doesn't sound good."

"Why would they do that?" Count Duku wondered.

"The border guards said they're on the lookout for a pair of escaped criminals," the messenger said.

"I guess that makes sense," Duku commented.

"No, it doesn't," Basi contradicted him. "It would explain why nobody is allowed _out_ of Stavanger, but it doesn't explain why an envoy from a nearby kingdom isn't allowed _in_."

"Closing the border is usually a prelude to war, or some other kind of hostilities," the Duchess said. "At the least, they're rattling their sabers at us, very loudly."

"Why would they want war with us?" the Duke of Erl wondered. "They asked us to arrange peace for them!"

"Something is wrong here, that's for sure," Count Nelsen commented. "Could they be taking advantage of the fact that our queen is missing to make some trouble for us?"

"How would they know our queen is missing?" Kristoff asked. No one answered.

"It's possible," Anna nodded. "I don't like trouble. Trouble is bad."

"That also means we can't count on Stavanger to help look for Elsa and Anders," Kristoff said quietly.

"I don't like that, either," his wife quavered.

"Nevertheless, Your Highness," the Duchess said with a slightly sarcastic tone, "you have put yourself in charge, so you have to find a way to deal with this."

"She did _not_ put herself in charge!" Kristoff nearly shouted. "What's _wrong_ with you people? Don't you know _anything_ about the law? She's been _forced_ into this situation – it's her duty! You don't seriously think she _wants_ to be in this situation, do you?"

They were distracted by a whine and two yaps from under the table. Anna loved animals, but she was in no mood for this. Not now, not here. "Baron, tell that dog to be quiet!"

The Baron turned an interesting shade of red. "Foo Foo, no! Hush!"

"Foo Foo?" Kristoff almost laughed in spite of himself. "The dog's name is _Foo Foo?_"

"My wife named him," the Baron said lamely, turning even redder. "It was _not_ my idea! If you don't like dogs in Council meetings, Your Excellency, then blame your sister – it was _her_ idea to humiliate me this way."

"As the acting queen, I could alter your punishment," Anna said thoughtfully. "Of course, my idea of a fair punishment would involve rocks, a hammer, and a ball and chain, but at least there wouldn't be any lap dogs. Are you interested? No? Then keep Foo Foo quiet!" She gazed around the table, daring anyone else to speak up against her.

When no one spoke, she took a deep breath and went on. "I've seen what my sister goes through; I like being a princess, and I'm glad I'm not the queen. But, as Prince Kristoff has reminded us, I have a duty to Arendelle that I can't walk away from, and I can't let anyone take it from me. We are _going_ to get through this crisis, we are _going_ to find my sister and her husband, and I am _going_ to get out of this chair as soon as she's here to take it back. In the meantime, whether anyone likes it or not, I _have_ to be in charge." She stopped to take a breath. "I think this meeting is done. Thank you for your time. Return to your lands, and be ready to defend them in case Stavanger turns hostile. If I need any more good advice, I'll contact you." The nobles nodded and filed out the door.

She reached over and took her husband's hand. "Thank you," she said softly.

"This international stuff isn't my cup of tea," he replied, "but you know I'll do anything for you."

"Is there anything else we can do?" she wondered.

"As a kingdom, I don't know," he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "But as individuals… well, there's more than one way into Stavanger from here, and, speaking as a former mountain man, I just might know a few of those ways."

"I'm sure you do," she answered, "but that sounds risky if they're planning for war. They'd love to take one of our princes hostage. What could you accomplish if you did get into Stavanger?"

"I could ask around, and see if anyone has seen a pair of…" He paused. "Could Elsa and Anders be that pair of escaped criminals they're looking for? That would explain how they know our queen is missing."

"If they are, that means they were captured, they escaped, and now they're on the run," Anna thought out loud.

"It also means that Stavanger doesn't know where they are, so they're safe, for the moment," Kristoff nodded. "But they may need help getting back into Arendelle."

"You don't think my sister can handle a few border guards?" Anna almost laughed.

"If Stavanger is preparing for war, there will be more than just a few guards," Kristoff said. "Besides, Elsa doesn't like hurting people unless they push her over the edge. Anna, you're the temporary queen, and I'll obey your orders, but please – let me go up to Farbar Pass and keep an eye on the border crossing. If the two of them show up, they might need an assist, and if they don't show up, I'll stay out of sight. I've spent most of my life in the mountains; those guards will never know I'm there."

"Kristoff, you were never the heroic type!" Anna marveled. "Are you trying to win a medal or something?"

"No, I just feel like I should be doing something," he said embarrassedly. "I mean, my wife's sister is missing, and I like Anders, and they might be in trouble, and… I want to _do_ something."

Anna thought about that for a few seconds. "Very well, you have my royal permission to go."

He kissed her on the forehead. "Thank you, Anna! I'll be careful, I promise."

"On one condition!" she added firmly.

He braced himself. "What condition is that?"

"I go with you."

He rested his hands on her shoulders. "Your Highness, there are two big problems with that. One, you're not outdoors-trained. You can't sneak around in the snow and take advantage of cover like I can. Two, if you go with me, that leaves Arendelle without a temporary queen, right when the kingdom might need you the most. I'm sorry, Anna, but it's a bad idea."

"Those are two good reasons," she nodded, "but I've got two better ones. One, that's my sister out there, and two, I'm sitting in her seat, so I make the decisions. Either you go with me, or you don't go." She folded her arms and gave him the look that said, "The Queen of Stubbornness has spoken." He knew that look. He desperately wanted to talk her out of it, but she had a long history of not being talked out of things once she'd made up her mind, as he knew quite well. He sighed.

"Will you at least wear your white fur coat, so you aren't so easy to see in the snow?"

**o**

_A/N  
Thank you to Ptahaegyptus2 for suggesting that I include the new Baron's dog in this scene. It was definitely a good idea._


	10. Chapter 10

**Growing Together** Chapter 10

Elsa and Anders were about halfway up the mountain, and had paused in a small clearing to rest their mounts, when they heard the sound of horses coming up behind them. "I think we ought to hide," she said nervously.

He thought for a quick moment and nodded. "Let's get off the path."

"Our footprints in the snow will give us away, won't they?" she asked. "Oh – I can hide those with a sweep of my hand!"

"Of course you can," he agreed. "In fact..."

About a minute later, a squad of dragoons in the uniforms of the Stavanger Defense Forces rode into the clearing. They looked around and stopped.

"Those two riders couldn't have gotten that far ahead of us," the corporal said.

"Something strange is going on here," the sergeant replied. "We can see the trail as it leads up the mountain from here, and that pair isn't on the trail. But there aren't any footprints leading off the trail, either."

"Could they have climbed that cliff over there, and thrown snow over their footprints as they went?" one of the troopers asked.

"Unlikely, but possible," the sergeant nodded. "Corporal, take three men and check it out." The second-in-command chose three burly troopers and they walked on foot toward the cliff the first trooper had seen.

They returned after a minute. "Not a chance, Sergeant," the corporal reported. "That cliff is coated in sheer ice. No one could climb that without special climbing gear. There's no sign of their horses, either." The men searched the area around the clearing for several minutes, but found no clues to the whereabouts of their quarry. They shrugged, remounted, and continued up the trail.

After five minutes had passed, the ice-coated cliff shimmered, and a horse-sized hole suddenly appeared. That ice was a false front; it was only half a foot thick, and it stood about eight feet in front of the actual cliff, which left plenty of room to hide two royals from Arendelle and their horses. Anders peered out, then led his horse back to the clearing, with Elsa right behind him.

"That was close," she said nervously.

"It will probably get worse," he nodded. "The horse soldiers usually go ahead of the main army, scouting for trouble. There will be plenty more soldiers where those men came from, and they probably aren't too far behind us. The good news is they'll be on foot, so they can't overtake us while we have our horses."

"The bad news is that they're below us, and those dragoons are above us," Elsa countered. "We're surrounded, and our way home is blocked."

"Can't you fix that with another little storm?" Anders wondered, surprised.

"When we've got the whole countryside to hide in, yes," she said. "But Farbar Pass is narrow, and it's getting narrower as we climb higher. If ten men sit ten feet apart at the crossing point, they can cover the entire pass, and I could never bring visibility down to less than five feet without endangering us as well. I don't mean the cold," she rushed on as he began to object. "I mean the wind that could blow us right off the mountain."

"I hadn't thought of that," he nodded. "You'd think I would have remembered the storm you just made, to get us out of that camp down there." Then his thoughtful look vanished into something like fear. "Those dragoons – they were speaking perfect Norwegian! They must be from the Stavanger army. That means we probably have two armies on our tail, Stavanger's and España's. If they combine forces..."

"They won't," Elsa reassured him. "We can be pretty sure of that. They don't even speak the same language! They could never fight together."

He visibly relaxed. "You're right. I'm sure Stavanger will go in first, to conquer Potet. Then España will arrive and stop them from going any further... and take over the rest of our kingdom while they're in the neighborhood. At least, that's probably their plan." He paused. "Can I say something? It's not like I think you're a basket case or anything, but considering everything you've been through in the past few days, you're really holding yourself together well."

She was mildly annoyed at that. "Do you think I'm that weak?"

"No," he said hastily, "but in the past, your strength has worked against you, because your fears were too powerful for you to handle. Now, it's as though all the different pieces of Elsa are finally moving in the same direction. Ever since we got out of that lifeboat, I haven't had to settle you down very much, aside from that storm in the camp. You've settled yourself." He made a wry face. "I think I might be on the verge of losing my job."

"Not a chance of that, Anders!" she exclaimed, and kissed him quickly. "I hired you for keeps. Don't you remember the 'for as long as you both shall live' part of the contract?"

"Of course I do," he smiled.

"Good," she nodded. "If I'm finally getting myself together, you're a big part of the reason why. Don't think for a minute that I don't need you around, because you're helping to hold me together, whether you're actively comforting me or not." She kissed him again. "Now, we need a plan to get out of Stavanger and defend Arendelle. Got any good ideas?"

"I've got a bunch of them," he nodded, "but most of them involve us being on the other side of Farbar Pass. I guess we ought to keep going up; that's the direction we need to move in, and the higher we go, the better the view we'll have of the armies climbing up toward us. The one thing we _cannot_ do is let ourselves get taken by surprise."

"What about those dragoons who went ahead of us?" she asked.

"They'll get to the Pass, make sure the way is clear, and wait for the rest of their army to catch up," he decided. "One squad can't invade much, not even a defenseless kingdom like Arendelle – a handful of farmers with pitchforks and hunting bows, fighting on their own lands, could fight them to a standstill."

"Do we have any advantages at all?" she wondered.

"We have two big ones – your powers, and the fact that they don't know we're here," he said as they mounted their horses and began climbing again. "Of course, they have the advantages of numbers, weapons, and training. I was wondering – can you make an Olaf, and turn him into a soldier?"

"Olaf wouldn't make much of a soldier, no matter what I did," she said, "but I once made a big snowman who was a very powerful fighter." She stopped and stared at Anders. "What if I made a squad of giant snowmen? Or a whole platoon?"

"Can you do that?" he asked hopefully.

"It kind of hurt when I made that one," she said, recalling a desperate battle to escape the Duke of Weselton's men and get Anna to the trolls for help. "I'll have to brace myself for each one; it may take a lot out of me."

"Please don't hurt yourself," he urged her. "You're the only queen we've got, and you're the only wife I've got."

"I'll try to pace myself, but if this is the only way we can save Arendelle, then I'll do whatever I have to do," she said decisively.

"It's not the only way," Anders thought out loud, "but I'm sure we'll need it before we're done. For now, what we need is snow. Lots and lots of it, a lot more than we've got now. No wind, just a heavy buildup of snow."

"I can do that," she nodded, "and I think I know what you have in mind. I hate to do it, though. I _really_ hate it. It might kill someone. I've never killed anyone before – not on purpose, anyway. Isn't there some other way?"

"My love, the Spanish and the Stavangers have put us in this place," he reassured her. "This situation is their fault, not ours. If we don't take them out, then they will kill us, and your sister and Kristoff, and anyone else who gets in their way. I don't like it either, but like you said, we'll do whatever we have to do. They've left us no choice."

She slowly nodded, and raised her hands. Snow began tumbling down all around them, silent and beautiful, as they urged their horses up the trail.

**o**

_A/N  
The idea that making a giant snowman causes Elsa pain came from the movie. If you watch closely, you'll notice that Elsa grimaces when she creates Marshmallow. She didn't do that with any other use of her powers. Maybe it's the size of her creation, combined with the fact that it's alive; I don't know. But it makes a useful plot point._


	11. Chapter 11

**Growing Together** Chapter 11

Two white-clad figures and one reindeer made their way up the Arendelle side of Farbar Pass. Prince Kristoff led the way, breaking a trail through the snow for his wife, who floundered along behind him. Anna would have quit this adventure hours ago if she'd been trying to rescue anyone but her sister. Sven bounded along beside them, behind them, and anywhere else he felt like going, joyfully oblivious to what was at stake here.

"Kristoff... wait a second," Anna called. She needed to take a break – this mountain path was steep. There was no place for them to sit, so they stood. Anna caught her breath and watched Sven playing in the snow; Kristoff looked up the trail toward the pass, trying to see if anyone was up there.

"Are we wasting our time up here?" she asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" he wondered.

"How do we know Elsa and Anders are anywhere near here?" she said. "How do we know they aren't in some Stavanger dungeon? How do we even know if they're still...?"

Kristoff didn't answer. He was watching Sven licking up snowflakes out of the air. He suddenly pulled up his white coat sleeve, revealing the arm of a dark-blue sweater underneath. He held that arm out for a few seconds, then studied it closely. He smiled.

"Elsa is fine," he announced. "She's alive and well, and she's somewhere close by."

"How can you possibly know that?" she exclaimed.

"Look at these snowflakes on my sleeve," he explained. "They're all identical, and they're the same pattern Elsa used in her ice palace. I'd know that pattern anywhere."

She didn't bother looking at the snowflakes on his sleeve. She just threw her arms around him. "I knew there was a good reason I married you," she whispered. Then she let go and began charging up the mountain. "Come on! Let's go! We need to get a move on!"

"Whoa!" Kristoff burst out. "Slow down, Miss Hasty-Pants! We've still got a long way to go!" He had to hurry so he could catch up to her.

**o**

The royal fugitives were a few hundred yards below Farbar Pass when they looked back and saw a force of soldiers marching up the mountain toward them.

"Something's wrong," Anders commented. "If that's the Stavanger army moving in first, there aren't enough of them. They have an entire battalion of soldiers, maybe more, and I see only about two hundred men."

"Maybe some of them are still on guard against a sneak attack from Glauerhafen," Elsa suggested. "That's the trouble with truce-breakers – they assume everybody else is a truce-breaker, too."

"That's possible, but I still don't like it," Anders replied. "If Stavanger has split their army, that means we could be facing three separate forces, and we have plans to handle only two."

"There's another possibility," Elsa went on. "What if Stavanger is planning to go back on their deal with España? What if they're going to let the Spanish army stop their main advance as planned, and then send their second force in another direction, to bite off another chunk of Arendelle before the Spanish can react?"

After a moment's thought, Anders nodded. "That's the most likely scenario yet; I think you've guessed their plan. If that's the case, then their second force will probably be their first-quality troops. That would be Major Harstad and the best men from his First Infantry Battalion. The man is a professional soldier; facing him in battle is _not_ something I want to do. We may have to come up with a third plan to deal with that third force, and I confess – I'm all out of ideas."

"As you often say, let's deal with one problem at a time," Elsa said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "That first army will reach our warning sign in about half an hour, and if they don't turn back, they'll be in position for you-know-what about half an hour after that. Let's wait and see if they do the smart thing and turn back." They found a spot where they could see almost all the way down the trail, tied their horses to a stunted pine tree, and waited. The snow continued drifting down around them; the scene was almost peaceful.

After about half an hour, he turned to his queen. "They must have found your warning by now. What do you think they're doing?" She had repaired the hole in the fake ice-cliff, and inscribed it with the words "Turn back or you will be destroyed" in both Norwegian and Spanish.

"If I know the military mindset, they're probably having a very brief discussion about it, and then ignoring it and continuing up the trail," she said sadly. "I really don't think my warning will do any good, but I had to try."

"You did your best to warn them," he nodded. "I don't like what's going to happen next, but they've backed us into a corner."

"On the day I accepted the crown, I promised I would spend my life seeking the good of my kingdom and my people above all else," she said grimly as she watched down the trail. "That doesn't leave me any room for personal feelings. I'll do what I have to do." He rested his hand on her shoulder; she leaned toward him, but he could tell that she wasn't relaxing at all.

A little over half an hour after that, the first soldiers came into view. There were about two hundred of them, and they wore brand-new uniforms from Stavanger. At least one of them was on the alert; he pointed at them from about two hundred feet away, and the entire formation stopped. A man with shiny rank insignia on his shoulders stepped forward and called to them, "Are you here on Stavanger's business?"

Anders stood up and cupped his hands to his mouth. "We are here to tell you to go back before we destroy you!"

The soldiers' answer was a crossbow bolt. Anders ducked, and the bolt screamed over his head. Elsa gasped, turned away from the soldiers, hesitated for a moment, and made a sweeping motion with her hand. The thick snow that lay uphill from her stirred and began sliding downhill, gathering mass and speed as it went. Within seconds, a powerful avalanche was thundering down the trail.

Elsa parted the snow with a gesture of her hands; the avalanche split in two for a few moments and passed on both sides of them and their horses, without touching any of them. The soldiers from Stavanger had no one with cold powers to protect them. They were simply swept away without a trace. In a matter of moments, two companies of Stavanger's best fighters were gone, as though they had never been there. The avalanche spent its fury as it rolled down the mountain. Then, all was quiet again.

Anders rested a reassuring hand on his wife's shoulder. He felt her shaking, and flung his arms around her just as her tears spilled over. "Why did they make me do that to them?" she sobbed. "Are there any horrors I _won't_ have to go through on this trip?"

"I can think of one," he said softly. "You don't have to go through it alone." She clung to him until she could pull herself together again. "I wish we didn't have to do that, too," he went on. "But I really wish we could have done it to the Spanish instead; they've instigated this whole mess, and they're the ones who deserve it. They probably won't give us enough time to build up that much snow again, though."

"That avalanche will seriously mess up the trail," she said distractedly. "It will add at least an hour to their climbing time. Too bad we'll have no idea when they actually start climbing."

"If I had to guess, I'd say the Spanish are about half a day behind the Stavanger force," Anders thought out loud. "That gives us plenty of time to get to the top of the pass, chase the dragoons away, and get our second plan ready."

"And the rest of the Stavanger force? What about them?" Elsa wondered.

"I still don't know," Anders admitted. "The leader of that first force was _not_ Major Harstad; he was too tall and his voice was wrong. I think we just took out the second and third companies of the Major's battalion; he's saved his first company, his best men, to double-cross the Spanish and grab some more of our land. Let's hope and pray that we can think of something before we have to face them." They reclaimed their horses and resumed their climb. They didn't feel like talking.

They dismounted well before they got to the pass; they didn't want their horses' hoofbeats to give them away. "I should go in first and see where those dragoons are," she urged him. "I won't make a sound as long as I'm walking on snow."

"As a man, I ought to demand that I go into danger first, but I can't argue with your logic," he admitted. "Please be careful! In fact, be extra-careful." They kissed quickly; then she crept toward the pass, walking across the top of the snow. She left no footprints and, true to her word, she made no sound.

She returned after about ten minutes. "They've dismounted, and they're just standing around, doing nothing. They must be waiting for their army to arrive."

"Were they on guard, or relaxed?" he asked.

"Relaxed," she answered. "They must have heard the avalanche, but they probably don't know what it did to the rest of their invasion force. How are we going to get rid of them?"

"Make a couple of your giant snowmen," Anders suggested. "This will be a test of our plan to fight the Spanish." She nodded and gestured with both hands at the snowy ground. It heaved, sparkled, and grew up into a huge, unfriendly-looking snowman, well over twice Anders' height. He noticed Elsa grimace as she brought the snowman into being; he'd never seen her show pain when using her powers before. It bothered him. She made another one, then glanced at Anders. "How many do you think we need to handle ten dragoons?"

"If you can make one more without hurting yourself, that will definitely do the job," he decided. She nodded, took a deep breath, and made a third snowman. The three huge creatures stared at Elsa, motionless.

"Go up the trail and chase away the soldiers at the top of the pass," she instructed them. "Then come back to the top and wait for us there." The three enormous snowmen nodded wordlessly, turned, and shuffled up the path to the pass.

"Spears and crossbows can't hurt them," Elsa explained. "Maces and clubs won't do them any harm, either. Only an edged weapon like a sword or an axe can injure them, and then only if it severs a limb."

"I suspect that those dragoons will be armed mostly with spears and crossbows," Anders nodded. "Their leader might have a sword, but one man against three big snowmen... I think the pass will be safe for us in a minute or two." They waited three minutes, just to be safe, then rode up to the top of Farbar Pass.

They expected to find the pass deserted, but it wasn't. There were two figures nearby, dressed in white, watching them.

Anders tried to take their measure from a distance. "They don't look like dragoons, but I can't tell if they're –"

"ELSA!" came a familiar female voice.

"Anna?" Elsa exclaimed. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"We came to rescue you!" Anna shouted as she ran toward her sister, with Kristoff close behind her. They met in the middle of the pass and embraced each other tightly. Kristoff and Anders contented themselves with a firm handshake and a "Boy, am I glad to see you again!"

Anna was close to tears. "We thought we lost you at sea! _Please_ don't scare me like that, ever again!"

"Believe me, it wasn't my idea," Elsa whispered back. The men waited, slightly uncomfortably, until the two sisters released each other.

"Well, that's that," Kristoff decided. "We came to see if you needed any help getting back to Arendelle, but when we saw those giant snowmen chasing the soldiers away, we knew you had everything under control. Shall we return to the palace and bring this adventure to a close?"

"No," Elsa said suddenly. "We can't. We're not even close to finished. There are two more armies climbing toward the pass, and they won't stop until they've divided up Arendelle between them. They mean to wipe out our family, too."

That stopped Anna in her tracks. "How are we going to stop them?"

"That's going to be my worry," Queen Elsa replied. "We have a plan, but in case it doesn't work, you two ought to get out of here."

"Forget it!" Anna replied, before Kristoff could even draw a breath to answer. "We came a long way to help you, and we're _going_ to help you, even if all we can do is cheer you on." Elsa started to argue, but stopped herself. It was no use trying to out-stubborn Princess Anna. She turned and gazed down the trail, trying to see any signs of an approaching army of invasion. Her snowmen rejoined her after a few minutes, silent, ominous, and powerful.

**o**

_A/N  
Thank you, Ptahaegyptus2, for the first scene in this chapter._


	12. Chapter 12

**Growing Together** Chapter 12

The Spanish army marched quickly. For one thing, they were all combat veterans who knew how to march in rough terrain, and for another thing, marching quickly helped them stay warm. Their _Comandante_ and their princess rode white horses in the middle of the formation, so their presence could inspire the others. The men carried a mix of polearms and crossbows, along with two arquebus teams; the officers carried swords, and the _Comandante_ carried a lance as well.

The _Comandante_ had served with these men for years, and had already seen more than enough bloodshed for one lifetime. He was hoping for a quick campaign with a minimum of violence. The Princess Urraca, on the other hand, was dreaming of a bloody little war that would intimidate the peasants in her new kingdom, and quell any rebellious thoughts that they might have harbored. Her first concern was the crown she would wear when she took the throne of Arendelle. She'd seen Queen Elsa's crown – _that_ bit of costume jewelry was barely fit to be called a coronet! It certainly wasn't worthy of a real Queen. She might have to raise the taxes in the realm for a while, until she could afford enough gold to make a real crown, but that would be a small price for her kingdom to pay in exchange for them having a glorious queen they could be proud of.

As they climbed the mountain pass, they noticed that the trail was covered in rough snow, and it grew worse as they went higher. "There must have been an avalanche here recently, Your Highness," the _Comandante_ commented.

"That's good luck for us," she replied haughtily. "It means there will be no avalanches tumbling down on _our_ army." A minute later, they found the first traces of the Stavanger army that had been caught in that avalanche. There were a lot of those traces sticking up out of the snow.

"_That's_ not good luck for us," the _Comandante_ said respectfully. "The whole plan depends on our allies' ability to quickly overrun their chosen province. If they lost too many men in the snow here, they won't be able to do their job, and that ruins our excuse to enter the country and stop them."

"We will proceed, regardless," the Princess retorted. "We've come too far to let ourselves be stopped by an avalanche that has already happened. You attend to your battle, _Comandante_. Let me handle the statecraft."

"As you wish, Your Highness," the commander nodded. The army marched on, trying to ignore the sight of frozen arms and legs jutting out of the snow. They had seen battle before; they had seen death before; but the idea of being taken out by an unstoppable, invulnerable enemy like an avalanche reminded them powerfully that their lives were but a vapor and could end at any moment.

They approached the summit at last. On the other side lay the peaceful, defenseless kingdom of Arendelle, ripe for the plucking, like so many other peaceful kingdoms before it. Part of that kingdom was in the process of being annexed by Stavanger. The Spanish army's job was to roll into the rest of the kingdom to "protect" it. They had to move fast in order to get in front of the Stavanger force, which was already in front of them. The men were beginning to tire from the strain of climbing a mountain pass on an unusually rough trail. The Princess was working on a quick speech to inspire them when the _Comandante_ approached her again.

"There was supposed to be be a messenger or two from our allies waiting for us at the pass," he said, "but there's no one there at all. I don't like the looks of this. Something has gone wrong."

"_Comandante,_ you are beginning to tire me with your endless worries and complaints!" she snapped. She'd chosen this man to lead her army because he was known to be competent, but also because he was a distant cousin of hers. She didn't want any help from someone who might think of leading a _coup d'etat_ against her and crowning himself King once the victory was won. Now she was having second thoughts about this man. Would he be complaining like this to a male officer? "Everything is still going according to plan, as far as we know. Now get up front and lead your men into our new kingdom!" He nodded slowly and trotted his horse forward.

He passed some oddly-shaped snow mounds as he passed through his troops. The men were tired from all this up-hill marching; they didn't even try to march with precision as their commander passed them, but just kept putting one foot in front of the other. If a real battle was awaiting them, he might have worried. But all they had to do was reach the agreed-on border and face the Stavanger army, who would obediently stop advancing and take up defensive positions. They couldn't pass through their ally's army, so they had to take the long way. That meant a lot more marching before they were through. He noticed more of those snow mounds ahead of them. He idly wondered what was buried underneath them. Standing stones, perhaps? Those were common enough in Scandinavia. They weren't blocking his army's advance, so that was all that mattered. In a matter of minutes, his leading troops would cross the border into –

He heard a woman's voice shout something, and stared in horror as the snow mounds suddenly rose up into huge, monstrous-looking snowmen all around them.

His men fell back, crossing themselves and exclaiming, "_¡__Madre de Dios!_" But the snow monsters had them surrounded; there was no place for them to fall back to. The _Comandante_ dismounted before his panicking horse threw him, drew his sword, and shouted, "They're only made of snow! _¡__Luchamos!_" He charged at the nearest one to set an example, ducked under its huge fist as it swung at him, and plunged his sword straight into where its heart should be. The monster didn't even flinch, but brought its other fist straight down at him. He pulled his sword out and rolled away from the blow, but a third swing of those massive fists didn't miss. He was knocked senseless.

The rest of his army didn't fare much better. By weight of sheer numbers, they were doing some harm to the snowmen, but those numbers were being whittled down fast. Their polearms did little or no harm to the snow monsters; neither did their crossbow bolts; and the one arquebus team that got their weapon into firing position just shot a hole in the nearest snowman. The creature glanced at the hole curiously for a moment, then charged and stomped their weapon into matchsticks as the men fled.

In twenty minutes, it was all over. Amazingly, there were no fatalities. Nearly half the Spanish soldiers were unconscious, though, and many of them had suffered injuries of various kinds. The others had their hands up and their weapons on the ground, surrounded by the remaining snowmen. Princess Urraca was one of them; her horse had thrown her into a snowbank, and she'd been picked up by a snowman and deposited among her soldiers, almost gently, it seemed to her. Four civilians approached them from just over the crest of the pass, two men and two women. One of the women was instantly recognizable by her blonde side-braid. She was walking slowly and leaning hard on her husband's arm.

"The Bringer of Summer again," Urraca said acidly. "What's the matter, Your Highness? Is all this cold air playing havoc with your powers?"

"Maybe we should call _you_ the Bringer of Discord," Prince Anders shot back. "Someone in your position shouldn't be antagonizing her captors."

"We were hoping you'd say something like, 'I surrender,' " the redheaded woman added.

"I've been captured in Stavanger's territory, when I was doing nothing wrong, by a hostile act of Arendelle," she protested. "When the other European powers hear about this –"

"...they'll ban you from their lands for life," Elsa interrupted. Her voice was weak, but still carried authority. "Doing nothing wrong? Your army was a few hundred feet from my realm, armed for invasion and battle, in violation of the Treaty of Westphalia. Don't play innocent with me, princess. I don't believe you, and neither will anyone else."

"My soldiers were on their way to stop Stavanger's invasion of your territory!" Urraca exclaimed. "You should have welcomed us as peacemakers, not attacked us without a provocation!"

"A clever story," Anders said thoughtfully. "Too bad for you that there _was_ no invasion of our territory by Stavanger. We already have all the peace we need. Your 'help' is unnecessary, and also unwelcome."

"No invasion?" The Spanish princess couldn't believe it. "You mean you don't know about the battalion of soldiers who crossed your frontier earlier today? They must be halfway to your capital by now!"

The four of them looked at each other, seemingly baffled. "Did you see a battalion between the capital and here?" Prince Kristoff asked Princess Anna.

"No," she said blankly. "Did you?"

"Not me," he shook his head. "Prince Anders, did you see a battalion?"

"Yes, for a few moments," he replied. "They must have gotten caught by that avalanche. That was sad, very sad." Urraca recalled the frozen arms and legs sticking up out of the snow. Had the entire Stavanger force been wiped out?

Avalanche... giant snowmen...

"_You!_" She pointed a furious finger at Queen Elsa. "You witch! _You_ did all this! You're no Bringer of Summer – that name was just a ruse to fool me! I've guessed your secret! You're a _winter_ witch! Admit it!"

Elsa roused herself again. "It's not the victor's job to confess to the vanquished. You aren't giving the orders here, Princess. I'm sure you find that galling, but that's what happens sometimes when you invade a peaceful country. Kristoff, Anders, please tie up the prisoners."

"Are you going to be okay for a few minutes?" Anders asked, worried.

"I'll save my strength," she nodded. "I've got to mend those snowmen before the rest of the Stavanger force gets here."

"What do you mean, 'the rest of them'?" Urraca demanded. "I thought you wiped them out!"

Kristoff began slicing up sections of the Spaniards' mountain-climbing ropes with his dagger, and Anders used them to tie the soldiers' hands and feet. "We've taken out all the ones who have come after us so far," Anders explained. "Oh – you mean your allies didn't tell you they were going to double-cross you?" At her blank expression, he went on. "We found out that they've divided their forces, and their best men and their best commander haven't gotten here yet. We assume that they're planning to grab another chunk of Arendelle while you're looking the wrong way. Of course, both the army they're supporting and the army they're outwitting have been taken out of the battle, so no one knows what they'll actually do, not even them. But the Arendelle Defense Forces have eliminated two armies so far, so I'm not too worried about the third one." Elsa sat down in the snow to rest; Anna stayed close to her.

It took them nearly an hour to bind all their prisoners, including the lightly injured ones. Elsa designated some of her snowmen to guard them. The _Comandante_ eventually regained consciousness. When he looked around and saw the situation, he shook his head (which made it hurt even worse) and formally surrendered his force to the Queen of Arendelle.

"We understand that you are a soldier following orders, and that you did not initiate this invasion," she replied. "You fought bravely against overwhelming odds. When we return you to España, you will be permitted to keep your sword."

"Thank you, Your Highness," he said humbly.

"And what about me?" Princess Urraca demanded.

Anders answered that. "You'll travel home in the same ship as your soldiers, whatever kind of ship that turns out to be, even if it's a cattle barge. Elsa has learned humility from the things she's been through, and that will make her a better queen. It's time _you_ learned some humility, Princess."

"So who is going to teach _you_ humility, witch-lover?" she snapped.

"That's _Prince_ Witch-Lover to you," he snapped back. "I was born in humble circumstances, and I'll never forget where I came from. That makes it that all the more satisfying to remind you that I outrank you now, and you'll speak to me respectfully or I'll tie that pretty little mouth _shut!_" She was shocked into silence. No one had ever _dared_ to talk to her that way before! But he was right about outranking her, unfortunately. There was no hope of using her feminine wiles to influence him, like she did when they first met; he was clearly smitten with that _bruja_ he'd married. She'd bide her time and see if another plan suggested itself to her. Perhaps that second force from Stavanger would gain the upper hand and set her free. If they did, her first act would be to tie that insolent Prince's mouth shut!

"While you're thinking that over," he said reasonably, "allow me to explain something to you. The truth is that neither you or any other nation is ever going to be a threat to Arendelle again. You've seen the kind of fight that our Queen can put up, and this was only her first battle! She'll get better with practice, I'm sure. Our peaceful kingdom is more invasion-proof than any fortress-city you can name."

"And when she's old and feeble, what then?" Urraca asked sweetly.

"Then her children and her grandchildren, who will have the same power she has, will carry on in her place." Anders had no idea if that was true or not, but he wanted to plant the idea in this Princess' mind while he had the chance. "Arendelle is going to grow stronger, not weaker, with the passage of time. Be sure to pass that on to any aggressive sovereigns you might meet in the future, and especially to your own royal family. Warn them to keep their greedy hands off of our kingdom, or we'll defeat them even more thoroughly than we defeated you." She had no answer to that at all.

**o**

_A/N  
Anders' line, "That's Prince Witch-Lover to you," was inspired by an exchange between Cdr Rabb and Petty Officer Coates in the JAG episode "Answered Prayers."_


	13. Chapter 13

**Growing Together** Chapter 13

The giant snowmen silently lined up after the battle, awaiting their queen's ministrations. Some of them were simply banged up from their battle with the Spanish; others were badly gouged or were missing limbs. A few were so badly cut up that Elsa was tempted to just wave her hand and turn them back into snow, but she couldn't do it. She was glad that they could feel no pain. Injuries like those in a human would have been agonizing. The problem was that each use of her power on the living snow creatures drained her more and more. After healing the first five, she had to lean on Anders' arm again, and it took longer and longer for her to mend each one after that. Kristoff had tried to just pack handfuls of snow into the weapon marks, but that did no good – the snowmen needed the power of the one who had created them.

"Elsa, you need to hurry!" Kristoff called. "I can see a bunch of soldiers climbing the trail; they'll be here in half an hour or less."

"I'm doing my best," she sighed, gestured, and winced as a snowman regrew a missing arm. The huge creature shuffled over to join its fellows, waiting for enemies to arrive so it could defend its Queen. Elsa took a deep breath, steadied herself, and called, "Next!"

"Elsa, I'm getting worried about you," Anders said. "You're looking pale, and your knees are getting wobbly. All this use of your power is taking a lot out of you."

"I can't stop until my kingdom and my people are safe," she said, too quietly for his liking. "And until _you're_ safe. My power is the only thing that can save Arendelle."

"But who's going to save _you?_" he asked.

"I'll be all right," she sighed. "Just hold me up a little longer, and then I can rest." He wasn't the strongest man in the world, but the sight of his bride physically faltering brought out an extra reserve of strength in him. If she wouldn't quit, then neither would he. Anna stayed close to her sister as well. Kristoff got out of sight and took Sven with him; he'd firmly asked Anna to join him once the battle began, and she'd reluctantly agreed.

Elsa was about halfway finished, and had almost fainted, when the leading ranks of Stavanger's Company A, First Infantry Battalion, marched into the pass. Leading the way was Major Harstad. He held up his hand, and the soldiers halted. He walked forward until he was about twenty feet from Elsa, Anders, and Anna.

"The last time we met, you called me a trespasser," he called. "Now, _you're_ the ones who are trespassing in _my_ kingdom. I order you to surrender."

Anders waited for Elsa to reply. She glanced at him and shook her head weakly, so he took the initiative. "You are invading a nation that is still at peace with you, in spite of your best efforts to invade us. Your Second and Third Companies have been wiped out, and your Spanish allies have all been taken prisoner. Back down and leave this place, or you will be destroyed as well."

"I have my orders, and you haven't even started to defeat my First Company," the Major snapped back. "I respect you, Prince Anders, and I'd hate to have to kill you. Please surrender and make this easy for both of us."

"Major, please believe me when I tell you this – you will get to Elsa over my dead body." Anders didn't even have a knife – he'd given it back to Kristoff when all the Spaniards were tied up – but he'd vowed to help and support his Queen, and that meant backing her up as she defended their kingdom, even if it really was the death of him.

Elsa reached up to try and fix one more missing hand on a snowman. A few icy sparks flew from her fingertips; then her knees buckled and she collapsed. Anders caught her as she fell. "Elsa!" he shouted. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp.

Major Harstad drew his sword. "If you want to save her life, then surrender. Now."

Anders turned to face the silent, waiting snowmen. "Defend your Queen!" he shouted. "Please." He wasn't their creator; would they take orders from him?

They would take _that_ order from him. With a growl, they shambled toward the soldiers, who quailed, but did not break and run. Stavanger's finest threw their spears, which did their icy foes no harm at all, then drew short swords and charged.

This army was barely a third the size of the Spanish army, but they were better trained, better armed, and better led, and the snowmen were fewer in number and not fully healthy. It was almost a fair fight; both sides were being whittled down at the same rate. At last, it was down to one battered snowman against Major Harstad. The snowman swung at him; the Major ducked under the blow and severed one of the snowman's legs with a backhand swing of his sword. As it fell sideways, he cut off the other leg.

"It's over, Anders," he said with an air of finality. "You've finally run out of options. Surrender or die."

Out of the corner of his eye, Anders saw motion. Anna throwing a snowball at the Major! "Anna, no!" Kristoff shouted, but he was far too late. As she lobbed it, Anders grabbed Elsa's limp hand, pointed it at the snowball, and whispered, "Speed up that snowball!"

No ice crystals flew from her fingers. There was no sign that she heard him at all. But the snowball suddenly accelerated until it hit Major Harstad in the chest with brutal force. He staggered back and dropped his sword, unable to breathe due to the force of the blow. He sank to his knees, and slowly fell face-down in the snow.

Anders claimed the sword with shaking hands. He waited until he could see that his foe was breathing again. Only then did he speak. "Like you said, Major. It's over."

**o**

Two days had passed. The prisoners from Stavanger had been sent back to their homeland, minus their weapons and all their supplies. The Spanish captives had been turned over to the palace guard until they could be repatriated; their weapons, along with Stavanger's arms, had been added to Arendelle's armory, for use by the palace guard to keep their many prisoners under control. Princess Urraca had formally complained about the inadequacies of her dungeon cell. When informed that her only alternative was to be held in an abandoned gravel pit with her men, suddenly her cell became good enough.

Envoys had been sent out to all the neighboring kingdoms, informing them of Stavanger's aggression and España's treachery. Glauerhafen, in particular, was thankful to learn that Stavanger's army was now at barely a third of its previous strength, and lacking in weapons as well. There would be no peace conference now; Glauerhafen would bring the war to a close on their own terms, which would probably mean the end of Stavanger as a regional threat for many years.

Arendelle's nobles had been outraged to learn that their Queen was just sending the attacking armies home, without demanding any kind of reparations from the attackers. "They never actually invaded Arendelle," the Queen reminded them, "so our case would be questionable at best. They've been humiliated, they've lost all their weapons, they've lost the money they spent to equip their expeditions, and I'm not willing to prolong this conflict."

"Besides," Prince Anders added, "if we did demand something from them, we'd have to hold a peace conference, and the Queen and I have had our fill of peace conferences for a while, thank you very much." Elsa nodded, and that was the end of the discussion.

Kai was making arrangements to send an envoy (with guards) back into Stavanger after the crisis ended, to return the farmer's horses, give him fair payment for their use, and recover Elsa's necklace. Their suitcases with their other valuables had been found among the Spanish army's baggage; the only thing they'd actually lost was Anders' gold cuff links. Those, and the many mental shocks they'd endured as a result of their attempt at international diplomacy.

The giant snowmen had been fully healed and turned loose to enjoy the chilly climate of the mountains that separated Arendelle from her neighbors. Elsa had instructed them, "Don't let any groups of soldiers from other nations enter Arendelle unless a member of Arendelle's royal family says it's okay. Aside from that, you're free." They were launching the mother of all snowball fights when she left them.

There had been an impromptu royal ball at the palace to celebrate their victory and the return of their sovereign. Kai presented the Queen, the Prince-Consort, Princess Anna, and Prince Kristoff with the Royal Order of the Tulip, First Class, for their actions in saving the kingdom from a double invasion. This medal could be awarded only at the Queen's order, and Elsa didn't want to give herself a medal, but the other three refused to accept their decorations unless she got one, too. Elsa and Anders danced together once, because it was expected of them, but their hearts weren't in it. They were still trying to process everything that had happened to them over the past week. After an hour of watching everyone else dance, they excused themselves and retired to the royal sitting room. They needed to be alone for a few minutes.

"Elsa, there's something you're not telling me," Anders began slowly. "I've never seen you get that physically weak from using your power before. You still aren't yourself. Is there something else going on that I should know about? Have you seen a doctor lately?"

"Actually, I did see the doctor this morning," she said hesitantly.

"What's wrong?" he burst out as he leaped to his feet.

"Well... it's kind of embarrassing," she stammered. "It's hard for me to say this..."

"Okay, would it be easier to say it indirectly, like the way you proposed to me?" Anders didn't want to play guessing games, but anything that got her talking would be good.

"Umm... all right. What's my official title?"

"Queen Regnant, of course. You're the queen, by blood and not by marriage, so you're the ruling sovereign. What does that have to do with anything?"

"All right. I spy, with my little eye, something that rhymes with 'Queen Regnant'."

Anders thought for a few seconds. "That's a tough one. The only thing I can think of is Queen Puh... puh... puh..." He staggered back, stunned, and collapsed onto the nearest couch. "Are... are you sure?"

"The doctor is quite sure," she smiled as she sat down demurely in his lap. "That's why I had so little energy on the mountain. It looks like you've done the job I hired you for."

"But I'm not going to lose my job, right?" he asked nervously.

"Anders, don't talk nonsense!" she exclaimed. "If we have a little boy, you're going to show him how to be a man. If we have a little girl, you'll show her how a good man treats his lady, so she can find a good man of her own some day. You're going to show the whole kingdom what it means to be a good father. And in the meantime, we'll probably start another one."

"Another one?" He was desperately trying to process all this. "How many?"

"I don't know, obviously," she said with the first touches of genuine happiness she'd shown in days. "No one knows. The one thing I _do_ know for sure is that my sister is going to be a regular Fertile Myrtle once she and Kristoff get rolling, and while I'll probably never beat her in a contest like that, I have to at least make the attempt. After all, I'm the queen!" She kissed him lightly. "No, my precious prince. Your work has just begun!"

He kissed her back. "I guess job security is a good thing." He gazed in her eyes and saw more love than he ever knew existed. Yes, job security was definitely a good thing.

_The End_

**o**

_A/N  
I received many, many requests for a sequel to "Thawing Together." This story's genesis was the principle of storytelling called Chekhov's Gun, which states that ___"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."___ I had alluded to a few possible future story lines in "Thawing Together," like Elsa's fear of sea travel, or Princess Urraca's anger at Arendelle's Queen. When I decided to write a third "Frozen" story, those plot lines were already in front of my face, demanding to be resolved; all I had to do was flesh them out and merge them into a coherent story. The motive for that merger, the war between Stavanger and Glauerhafen, was also from "Thawing Together," so you could justifiably refer to this story as "Thawing Together, Part II." Still, the three stories form a trilogy, and I have no plans to write a fourth story. Sorry. (Of course, that could change tomorrow if I get a good idea that's worth writing about.)_


End file.
